 Van der Westhuizen was professor (from 1980 to 1998) and head (from 1980 to 1994) of the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Legal Philosophy in the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Law.He was the founding director of the university's Centre for Human Rights from 1986 to 1998.The Centre played a prominent role in legal resistance to apartheid and in the debate about a new constitutional dispensation and is now internationally recognised as a leading human rights institution in Africa.