Louis Harms

Louis Theodor Christian Harms (born 11 October 1941) is a South African judge who served as deputy president of the Supreme Court of Appeal and Professor Extraordinary for Intellectual Property Law at the University of Pretoria.

Education

Harms graduated from the University of Pretoria with a BA LL.B. (cum laude) in 1965 and the Hugo Grotius medal for best final year student. He was awarded a LLD (hon causa) from the University of the Free State and the University of Pretoria in 2013.

Biography

An advocate at the Pretoria Bar from 1966 to 1986, Harms was awarded senior advocate status in 1981 and appointed as a judge in 1986.

He is the author of three legal books, including The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: A Case Book, which has been translated into Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

Memberships and service

Harms served as vice chairman of the Council of the University of Pretoria from 1994 to 1996. Among his other Board roles was serving as a board member on the University of Western Australia Law Journal and for the Intellectual Property Journal, Osgood Hall Law School in Toronto. Harms was project leader on six criminal procedure issues from 1999 to 2003, and the chairman and sole member of four judicial commissions of inquiry in South Africa (1988 to 1990) – three dealing with corruption and related matters, and the other with political murders and other violent acts.

Harms is an Honorary Fellow of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa, the Arbitration Association (Southern Africa), an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, UK and also a member of the 4-5 Gray's Inn Square barristers' chambers in London.