Melodie Nöthling Slabbert is Deputy Executive Dean and Professor of Law, College of Law at University of South Africa. She obtained the degrees BA, BA (Hons), MA and DLitt from the University of Pretoria, and the degrees LLB and LLD (in medical law) from the University of South Africa. She was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 1996. She received various international research grants to conduct research in Finland, Germany, Australia, Spain, France, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium. She is presently the chairperson of the Inter-University Centre for Education Law and Policy and is also an advisory board member of, amongst others, the South African Medico-Legal Society (SAMLS), ICMM, Bone SA, Dignity SA and the Innocence Project SA. She has published numerous articles on medical law and other fields of law in local and international law journals and has presented many local and international conference papers. She is the author of the recent monograph on South African Medical Law for the Encyclopaedia of Law Series (Wolters Kluwer International). She has assisted with the drafting of various pieces of health legislation..