Steve Cornelius is a professor in and Head of the Department of Private Law and Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Law. He holds the degrees BIuris LLB (Unisa) LLD (Pret). The title of his LLD thesis is “The Interpretation of Contracts In South African Law". He is admitted as Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.
Academic & professional experience
He joined the Department of Private Law as Professor in 2010 after serving for eleven years in the Department of Private Law at the University of Johannesburg, where he was appointed as Senior Lecturer in 1999, promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and to Professor in 2007. He was also Head of the Department of Private Law at UJ. Before that, he served for eleven years in the Department of Justice, briefly as a Public Prosecutor and mostly as a Legal Officer in the Branch: Legislation Research, where he played an important part in the drafting of regulations required for the functioning of the Human Rights Commission, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Investigating Unit. He is a Fellow of the Association of Arbitrators of Southern Africa and a member of the South African Academy of Science and Art. Prof Cornelius served on the Disciplinary Tribunal of the International Association of Athletics Federations and is a member of the Independent Doping Hearing Panel of the South African Institute for Drug-free Sport. He is also an independent director on the board of Cricket South Africa.
Teaching activities
He teaches Capita Selecta Private Law (PVR420) on the LLB programme.
Representative publications
Principles of the Interpretation of Contracts in South Africa 2002 Butterworths Durban (ISBN 0-409-00343-3) (reprint 2007), second edition 2007, third edition 2016, LexisNexis Durban.
Co-author of Cloete et al Introduction to Sports Law in South Africa 2005 Lexis-Nexis Butterworths, Durban (ISBN 0 409 05006 7)
Blackshaw, Cornelius and Siekmann TV Rights and Sport – Legal Issues 2009 TMC Asser Press, The Hague (ISBN 978 90 6704 281 9)
Co-author of Research Handbook on International Sports Law 2011 Edgar Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham (ISBN 978 1 84720 633 6).
Co-author of Contemporary Private Law 2012 IAITL, Athens (ISBN 978 87 9948 541 3).
Co-author of Leading Cases in Sports Law 2013 TMC Asser Press, The Hague (ISBN 978 90 6704 908 5).
"A Comparative Analysis of Sports Image Rights in South Africa" 2008 International Sports Law Review Pandektis 424.
"Ambush Marketing in Sport" 2011 (4) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 12.
"Commercial Appropriation of Image: How Could Two Courts Get it so Wrong?" 2011/3-4 International Sports Law Journal
“The Unexpressed Terms of a Contract” 2012 International Journal for Private Law 293.
"Liability for Sports Injuries" 2012 (3) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 13.
“Mora Debitoris and the Principle of Strict Liability” 2012 Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 601.
“A Critical Analysis of Article 4.3 of the World Anti-Doping Code” 2012/3-4 International Sports Law Journal 3.
“Cricket’s Underworld: Fighting Illegal Gambling and Match-Fixing” 2013 (2) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 17.
“The Legal Nature of Media Rights in Sport: Part 1” 2014 (4) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 6.
“The Legal Nature of Media Rights in Sport: Part 2” 2015 (1) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 8.
“The expendables: Do sports people really assume the risk of injury? Part 1” 2015 (4) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 8.
“The expendables: Do sports people really assume the risk of injury? Part 2” 2016 (1) Global Sports Law and Taxation Reports 6.
“‘Run, Pheidippides, One Race More!’ Meditations in the Shadow of the Global Sports-Media Complex” 2017 39(1:2) South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation 81.
“Sports injuries: Beyond consent and assumption of risk” in Sports Law – Present and Future 2018 Chaek Yearn Publishing, Seoul (ISBN 979 11 961572 6 5) pp 163 - 182.
Areas of specialisation
His main areas of interest are Law of Contract and Sports Law.
Appointments
Independent director Cricket South Africa.
Former Member of the IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal.
Member of the SAIDS Independent Doping Hearing Panel.
Member of the South African Academy for Science and Art.
Fellow of the Association of Arbitrators of Southern Africa.
Editorial-in-Chief of the International Journal of Private Law.
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Sports Law Journal.
National rapporteur for the International Sports Law Review Pandektis.