Sapna Mesthrie
Room 6.30 - Kramer Law Building
BA (distinction) LLB (magna cum laude) LLM (distinction) UCT
Attorney of the High Court of South Africa
Sapna Mesthrie is a lecturer in the Department of Public Law since 2026 and specializes in criminal justice. She teaches primarily at final year LLB level and serves as the Final Year Co-ordinator. She lectures Law of Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Justice and the Constitution. Sapna’s areas of interest include evidence, substantive and procedural criminal law, sentencing and punishment, sexual offences and the criminal law, and the treatment of children within the criminal justice system.
Sapna has been a lecturer in the UCT law faculty since 2022 and prior to joining the Department of Public Law she lectured courses in commercial law. Sapna has also served as a teaching assistant in the Department of Public Law, during which time she completed an LLM in Public Law (with distinction) at UCT, with her dissertation focusing on sexual offences and the law of evidence. Prior to this, she completed her articles of clerkship at ENS Africa, whereafter she was admitted as an attorney.
Sapna has successfully supervised a variety of topics at Master’s level and can supervise LLM and final year students on a range of topics in criminal justice.
Recent publications:
Mesthrie, S ‘Interpreting the child’s right to protection from violence in the South African context in line with international law obligations’ Journal of Human Rights Practice 2025 17 43-57.
Mesthrie, S ‘Consumer credit insurance in South Africa: Consumer-friendly or unnecessary burden?’ in M Louw & V Lawack Contemporary Banking and Finance Law, Juta: Cape Town 2025.