Dr Lize Mills

Lize joined DMU Law School in 2022, after establishing her career in Family and Child Law at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her doctoral research analysed the concept of the best interests of the child in the food marketing environment and her current research focusses on the rights of victims of rape, parental responsibilities and rights, and issues of gender and sex within these contexts.

Centre for Law, Justice and Society

1. “The virtual reality of child pornography” Stellenbosch Law Review 2003 (2) 187 – 198
2. “Stop the press: Why censorship has made headline news (again)” Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 2007 1:1 – 30
3. “The Immeasurable Wrongfulness of Being: The Denial of the Claim for Wrongful Life” Stellenbosch Law Review 2010 (1) 67 – 89 (co-author with CS Human).
4. “Certainty about Surrogacy” Stellenbosch Law Review 2010 (3) 429 – 437.
5. “Selling Happiness in a Meal: Serving the Best Interests of the Child at Breakfast, Lunch and Supper” The International Journal of Children's Rights 2012 Vol 20 (4) 624 – 644.
6. “The Regulations Relating to Foodstuffs for Infants and Young Children (R 991): A Formula for the Promotion of Breastfeeding or Censorship of Commercial Speech?” Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 2014 (17) 1.
7. “Formula for plain (bland) packaging” Without Prejudice February 2014; also available at The Anton Mostert Chair of Intellectual Property Blog site, available at http://blogs.sun.ac.za/iplaw/2013/12/03/formula-for-plain-bland-packaging/ December 2013 (subsequently republished at http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2013/12/of-principles-and-plain-packaging-is.html and http://www.polity.org.za/article/formula-for-plain-bland-packaging-2013-12-06 )
8. “Failing Children: The Courts Disregard the Best Interests of the Child in Le Roux v Dey” The South African Law Journal 2014 (4) 847-864.
9. “That time of the month: discrimination against girl children who cannot afford sanitary health care” in Skivenes and Søvig (eds) Child Rights and International Discrimination Law: Implementing Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 2019 (co-author with C Howe)
10. “Chapter 16: Intercountry Adoption” Commentary on the Children’s Act (co-author with CS Human) Update: 2019
11. “Parental Responsibilities and Rights during the ‘Gender reassignment’ Decision-making Process of Intersex Infants: Guidance in Terms of Article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, International Journal of Children’s Rights 2020 Vol 28 (3) 547–570 (co-author with S Thompson)
12. “Computer Says No: Enforcing divorce upon persons who changed their sex in Europe and South Africa”, International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law, Vol 1, No 1 (2020, available at https://ddec1-0-en-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.northumbriajournals.co.uk%2findex.php%2fIJGSL%2farticle%2fview%2f994&umid=91aa8d7e-2632-42b7-bb01-cc0fd257ef4d&auth=06e76e57000ea428f34b63fea08893688229b6ce-e155d25ce00b632d0663bc55740d277488ba6ef6
13. “Mater Semper (In)Certus Est: A South African Perspective on McConnell v Registrar General for England and Wales”, The South African Law Journal 2021 (2) Vol 138 397-422
14. “What it Means to be a Parent: Implications for Family Law and Law of Succession - Wilsnach NO v M and Others 2021 1 All SA 600 (GP)”, Journal of South African Law 2021 (3) 562-571 (co-author with MJ de Waal)
15. “Chapter 8: Parental Responsibilities and Rights during the ‘Gender Reassignment’ Decision-Making Process of Intersex Infants” in Fenton-Glynn & Sloan (eds) Parental Guidance, State Responsibility and Evolving Capacities 2021 172-196 (co-author with S Thompson)
16. “Born from bad memories: the best interests of children born from rape and incest” – accepted for publication by the Journal for Juridical Science, April 2023.

Family and Child Law; Food Law

Family and Child Law, Human Rights, Social Justice

BA (Law); LLB; LLM; LLD

• Private Law (Law of Persons and Family Law; Advanced Family Law; Law of Succession; Consumer Protection)
• International Law and Children’s Rights (LLM)
• Introduction to Law
• Writing Skills
• Legal Skills
• Private International Law
• English and European Legal Systems
• Human Rights

• South African Film and Publication Board: 2001–2008
• South African Health Products Regulatory Appeal Board: 2022–2023

Fellow: Institute for Feminist Legal Studies Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada 2021–2022

Member of the Family Mediators Association of the Cape (2020-2022)

• “Finding and using legal information in South Africa” Webber Wentzel 11 November 2010
• “Selling Happiness in a meal: serving the best interests of the child at breakfast, lunch and supper” NMMU Conference on Private Law and Social Justice – Port Elizabeth: August 2011
• “The Development of writing skills of Stellenbosch University law students” SoTL Conference – Somerset-West: May 2012
• “Childish behaviour, the best interest of the child and the law of delict” NMMU Conference on Private Law and Social Justice – Port Elizabeth: August 2012
• “Selling Happiness in a meal: selling the best interests of the child at breakfast, lunch and supper” Annual Family Law Colloquium – Port Elizabeth: September 2012
• “The Ethical and Legal Aspects of Marketing Food to Children” Continuing Nutrition Education Symposium for Dietitians 29-30 May 2014
• “An introduction to the South African Matrimonial Property Law” Stellenbosch University & Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Joint Research Seminar April 2016
• “The Girl Child’s Right to Sanitary Health Care Products” Forth Annual CRC Colloquium, Bergen, Norway April 2017
• “A Curious Tale of Homophobia in Home Affairs: KOS v Minister of Home Affairs and Others” Clarke Attorneys Annual Family Law Conference, September 2017
• “Parental Responsibilities and Rights during the “Gender Re-assignment” Process of Intersex Infants” Robinson College, Cambridge University, July 2019 (Co-presenter with S Thompson)
• “The uncomplimentary regulation of complementary medicines in South Africa” University of Pretoria Virtual International Consumer Law Conference, September 2020
• “(Social) Justice for children born from incest and rape” Nelson Mandela University: Beyond the illusion of social justice, August 2021
• “Better left unsaid? Conflicting interests of children born from incest and rape” Centre on Law and Transformation, Bergen University, Norway: Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation 2021, August 2021
• “Polygamy, Principles and Power: what’s good for the goose, is not always so for the gander” FLSQ IWD Conference - Queens University Law School, Kingston Canada March 2022
• “Born from bad memories: considering the best interests of children conceived through rape and incest”, due to be presented at the International Society for Family Law’s 18th Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, July 2023

Charley-Anne Gordon-Gardner (2nd Supervisor)

• Mostly men are up in arms over polyandry because it strikes at the heart of patriarchy - Daily Maverick 1 June 2021
• South Africa should follow in Scotland's footsteps to provide free sanitary wear - Cape Talk 17 August 2022

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