Steytler, Nicode Visser, Jaap2021-06-082021-06-082020Steytler, N; de Visser, J. 2020. From the Community Law Centre to the Dullah Omar Institute: The Path of Engaged Research in From Hope to Action through Knowledge. Stellenbosch: UWC Presshttps://doi.org/10.18820/9781990995019/20http://hdl.handle.net/10566/6269Commencing its life as a research, advocacy and constitution-building entity in 1990, the Community Law Centre, later becoming the Dullah Omar Institute, has over the past 29 years played a significant role in the shaping of South Africa as a constitutional democracy. It is one of UWC’s premier research institutes. Given the purpose of this book, this chapter seeks to analyse the dynamic relationship between the University leadership, on the one hand, and the entity, on the other. It provides a sketch of how the University executive management, under the leadership of different Vice-Chancellors, engaged with the academic and community project of the Centre/Institute. As such it is not a full history of the entity for that many more pages are required. It is, in the often-spoken words of Brian O’Connell, trying ‘to make sense’ of what made the Centre/Institute tick and its relationship with the University. This historical journey is roughly divided into the tenure periods of the four Vice-Chancellors of UWC over the last 30 yearenDullah Omar Instituteconstitutional democracyUWC leadershipcommunity outreachBook chapter