Professor Michelle Louw
BIuris (cum laude) Unisa
LLB, LLM (cum laude) Unisa
LLD Unisa
Bio
Professor Michelle Louw holds a BIuris (cum laude), an LLB, LLM (cum laude), LLD (all from the University of South Africa) and a Diploma in Insolvency Law and Practice (SARIP, University of Johannesburg). She completed an Advanced Short Course in Outcome-Based Assessment in Higher Education and Open Distance Learning (with distinction – obtained 99%) (Unisa) and Short Programme: Construction Contracts (with distinction) (UP) (2019).
Michelle is a professor of law in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town. She is also currently the Head of the Department of Commercial Law. She holds a B2 rating from the South African National Research Foundation (that is, a researcher who enjoys considerable international recognition by her peers for the high quality and impact of her recent research outputs). She holds a doctoral degree in international banking law. She has published widely in the fields of insolvency law, banking law and consumer credit law and her research has been cited with approval by the South African courts, including the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, and a Namibian High court on several occasions.
Michelle has received five research awards, including the South African Department of Science and Technology’s award for Distinguished Young Woman Scientist (Academic Excellence in Social Sciences) (2010). Throughout her career she has been extensively involved in the drafting of legislation. For instance, she was a drafter of the Land and Agricultural Development Bank Act 15 of 2002, a member of the Business SA’s Task Group on Insolvency Law who investigated the proposed Unified Insolvency and Business Recovery Bill of 2003, drafted the consequential amendments contained in the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 and provided expert advice to the drafting team and also assisted with the drafting of the 2006 regulations to this Act. She served on the panel of legal experts (legislative drafting) for the SA National Treasury and the legal panel of the SA National Roads Agency Limited Property Portfolio respectively. She was a visiting research fellow at the University of Westminster, London (2010) and a research fellow at the Institute of Advance Legal Studies in London (2016). She is the immediate past President of the International Association of Consumer Law. She is a member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law, an exco member of the International Academy of Financial Consumers and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).
Michelle is a member of various South African and international law journals. She serves on the advisory boards of various local and international law journals. She was also appointed to the Specialist Committee of the National Research Foundation’s Rating System (Law) for a period of three (3) years (from Feb 2023–Feb 2026). She was also re-appointed by the South African Minister of Science and Innovation to serve on the adjudication panel of the SA Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA) for three years (from 2023 to 2025).
Teaching
Banking and finance law; consumer credit law and insolvency law.