The current Board was elected following the 2023 conference. In 2013, the IACL created an Advisory Panel. Members of the Advisory Panel have been past Presidents of the IACL and major contributors to the study of consumer protection law.

Board Members

President, Claudia Lima Marques

Federal University of Porto Alegre, Brazil

Claudia Lima Marques holds the Private International Law and Law of International Relation Chair at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul at Porto Alegre, Brazil. She has a phD. from Heidelberg (Germany) and a LL.M. from Tübingen Law School (Germany). She is the author of seven books in consumer law and has written numerous articles on civil law (contracts, torts and family law), on conflicts of laws and consumer law issues

 

Vice President, James Nehf

Indiana University, Indiana, USA

Professor and Cleon H. Foust Fellow, Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. Professor Nehf has been teaching contracts, consumer law, and commercial law subjects for more than fifteen years. He was the inaugural director of the European Law Program at Indiana University and has held several university administrative positions, including a term as interim director of the Indiana University Center on Southeast Asia. His publications include an updated and revised edition of Corbin on Contracts, and numerous articles on privacy law, low-income consumer transactions, contracts, and international/comparative law subjects.

Michelle Kelly-Louw  (immediate past President)

University of South Africa

Professor Michelle Louw (writing as Kelly-Louw) is a professor of law and the Head of the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Currently holds a B2 rating (that is, a researcher who enjoy considerable international recognition by her peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs) from the South African National Research Foundation. She holds a doctoral degree in international banking law. She has published widely in the fields of insolvency law, banking law and consumer credit law and her research has been cited with approval by the South African courts, including the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, and a Namibian High court on several occasions. She has received five research awards, including the South African Department of Science and Technology’s award for Distinguished Young Woman Scientist (Academic Excellence in Social Sciences) (2010). Throughout her career she has been extensively involved in the drafting of South African legislation. She was a drafter of the Land and Agricultural Development Bank Act 15 of 2002. She was a member of the Business South Africa’s Task Group on Insolvency Law who investigated the proposed Unified Insolvency and Business Recovery Bill of 2003. She drafted the consequential amendments contained in the National Credit Act 34 of 2005, provided expert advice to the drafting team and also assisted with the drafting of the 2006 regulations to this Act. During 2005 she was one of the initial drafters that worked on proposals for a new South African Deeds Registries Act and Sectional Titles Act. In April 2010 she was appointed by the South African National Treasury and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as the drafter of the Financial Misconduct Regulations issued in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 and the Disciplinary Regulations for Senior Managers that were issued in terms of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000. She served on the panel of legal experts (legislative drafting) for the South African National Treasury and the legal panel of the South African National Roads Agency Limited Property Portfolio. She was a visiting research fellow at the University of Westminster, London (2010) and a research fellow at the Institute of Advance Legal Studies in London (2016). She is a member of various South African and international law journals. She was appointed by the South African Minister of Science and Technology to serve on the adjudication panel of the South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA) from 2019 to 2023.

Marco Loos (immediate past vice-president)

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Marco Loos studied law at the University of Amsterdam and wrote his Ph.D.-thesis on the contract to supply energy to consumers at Utrecht University. From 1997 to 2001 he worked as a researcher and lecturer of law at Tilburg University. From 2002 until now he works at the University of Amsterdam, first as a senior researcher and lecturer and as of 2005 as a full professor. He currently is Head of the Department for Private Law at that university. He regularly publishes in the fields of contract law, consumer law and European private law. He is a member of the editorial board of the Dutch consumer law review Tijdschrift voor Consumentenrecht en handelspraktijken (TvC) and associated with the reviews Nederlands tijdschrijft voor Europees recht (NTER) and Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Burgerlijk recht (NTBR). He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch consumer organization Consumentenbond, and a member of the board of Governnors of the International Association of Consumer Law and of the research school Ius commune, as well as a part-time judge to the Court of Appeal of ’s-Hertogenbosch. Among other things, he was one of the authors of the Principles of European Law on Service Contracts (2005) and the Principles of European Law on Mandate Contracts (2012) and he wrote a book on the Review of European Consumer Law (2008). Moreover, he was the co-author of reports for the European Commission on digital content (2011) and on consumers’ attitudes towards terms and conditions (2016), for the European Parliament on remedies for buyers in case of contracts for the supply of digital content (2012), and for BEUC on consumer law compliance in on-line services (2014). As of 2014 he is a visiting professor at the University of Tartu (Estonia). In 2015 he was co-organiser of the 15^th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law in Amsterdam on Virtues in consumer law, which consisted of 9 keynote lectures and 36 workshops.

Gail Pearson

University of Sydney, Australia

Gail Pearson is Professor of Business Law at the University of Sydney where she Chairs the PHDASC and is Deputy Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee of Academic Board. She was Chair of the Discipline of Business Law. She is a Member of the Code Compliance Committee for Customer Owned Banks. Her books and articles are on financial services and credit and other aspects of commercial and consumer law. She has been a Member of the Fair Trading Tribunal of New South Wales, the consultative committee to the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal, and the Business Law Specialist Accreditation Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales. With others from the IACL she was a member of the International law Association Committee on the International Protection of Consumers. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Advance Studies at JNU and of the Australia India Institute. With Nicola Howell of QUT, she founded the Australasian Consumer Law Roundtable.

Sebastián Barocelli

Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sergio Sebastián Barocelli is Profesor of Civil and Commercial Contracts Law. University of Buenos Aires (UBA) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Researcher at Institute for Law and Social Research “Ambrosio L. Gioja“, Faculty of Law – University of Buenos Aires (UBA) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor of the Career of Specialization in Contracts and Torts, Univesridad del Salvador (USAL) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor of the Postgraduate Program in Consumer Law. University of Buenos Aires (UBA) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Member of the Argentinian Institute of Consumer Law (IADC)

Kathleen Engel

Suffolk University Law School, Boston, USA

Professor Engel is a Research Professor of Law at Suffolk University and a national authority on mortgage finance and regulation, subprime and predatory lending, and housing discrimination. Her many publications include a 2011 book published by Oxford University Press, The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure and Next Steps (with Prof. P. McCoy) and articles in Texas Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Washington University Law Quarterly, Connecticut Law Review, The Journal of Economics and Business, Fordham Urban Law Journal, and Housing Policy Debate. Professor Engel presents her research in academic, banking, and policy forums throughout the country and around the world. Her analysis of financial services markets and the laws that regulate them regularly catches the attention of the press; The New York Times, Business Week, The Economist, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal have all cited her work. Professor Engel has advised numerous federal and state agencies on various matters related to financing of loans. Among her various public service activities, she has been an appointed member of the Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ Consumer Advisory Council.  She currently serves on the boards of Consumer Reports and the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

Byung-Jun Lee

Law School of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Seoul, South Korea

 

Professor Byung-Jun Lee obtained his PhD in Germany Tübingen in 1999 and started in 2000 at the Pusan National University as a Professor. Since 2003 he has been working at the Law School of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, South Korea. He was the Director of the Consumer Law Centre of HUFS in 2016 and the Head of the Law Research Institute of HUFS from March 2017 to February 2019. He is the author of many publications on Korean consumer law and the law of e-commerce. He is currently the President of the Korea Consumer Law Society and especially a member of the Korean Commission for the Reform of the Consumer Protection Act for e-commerce, the Act on e-documents and e-commerce and the Act on e-learning. In addition, he works as a mediator for the Korean Institution for Mediation in E-Commerce and the Institution for Online Advertising and for the Autonomous Mediation Committee. He was a member of the Korean Delegation to the UNCITRAL Working Group III (Online Dispute Resolution).

Tsuneo Matsumoto

Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan

Born in Kyoto in 1952, Tsuneo Matsumoto is a professor of private law at Hitotsubashi University School of Law, Tokyo, Japan. He got his LLB and LLM degrees at Kyoto University, and joined Hitotsubashi in 1991. Since 2009 he serves as Director for JD Program.
His major areas of concern are consumer law and policy as well as ICT law and policy. He has been advising various ministries and agencies in Japan on consumer and ICT issues. He is the chair of the Consumer Commission, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, which was established in September 1, 2009, at the occasion of the change of regulatory framework for consumer protection in Japan. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Council of JISC and served as the chair of its Consumer Policy Committee. He also serves as the chair of Japan’s mirror committee on ISO/SR as well as a member of the ISO/COPOLCO Chair’s Advisory Group. Professor Matsumoto is a board member of the International Association for Consumer Law. Since late 90s, he has been deeply involved in legal technical assistance program for transition economy, especially Cambodia and Vietnam, through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). His English publication includes “Privatization of Consumer Law: Current Developments and Features of Consumer Law in Japan at the Turn of the Century”, 30 Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 1 (2002) , “Consumer Protection Laws in Asian Countries”, Nobuyuki Sakumoto, Masayuki Kobayashi & Shinya Imaizumi (ed.), LAW DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGES IN ASIA (IDE-JETRO, 2003), “Anglo-American Law Research in the Study of Civil Law in Japan”, Zentaro Kitagawa & Karl Riesenhuber (Eds.), THE IDENTITY OF GERMAN AND JAPANESE CIVIL LAW IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES (De Gruyter Recht, Berlin), “Managing Risks Through Soft Law Techniques; Can They Work for Consumers?”, Iain Ramsay, John Salloum, Naomi Horrox & Geoff Mowatt (ed.), RISK AND CHOICE IN CONSUMER SOCIETY (Ant.N.Sakkoulas, Athens) and “Reshaping Consumer Policy”, Highlighting JAPAN through articles, March 2010.

Felicia Monye

University of Nigeria

Felicia Nwanne Monye is a Professor of Law at the University of Nigeria. She has a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Lagos, a Master of Laws Degree from the University of Nigeria and a Doctoral Degree in Law from the University of Lagos. Professor Monye teaches the Law of Consumer Protection, Commercial Law and Carriage of Goods by Sea in the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. She is a consumer protection advocate and has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences on the subject. She is a consultant to some international organisations on consumer protection and enjoys a good working relationship with many consumer protection agencies in Nigeria including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). She is a Board Member of the International Association of Consumer Law, a global association of consumer law experts. She was a principal researcher in the project: “Strengthening Consumer Protection in Three West African Countries for Social and Economic Justice” conducted in collaboration with the Consumers International with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), 2013 – 2014. She was a representative of the Consumer Stakeholder Group on the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Guidance Standard formulated by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) along with its member countries and liaison organisations. Her academic prizes and other awards include the Lebadeon Proficiency Prize (Ilesha Grammar School, Ilesha); Federal Merit Award (University of Lagos); Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Grant for Thesis Writing (Senegal); Consumer Rights Advocacy Award (conferred by the Consumer Protection Council) and Consumer Rights Protection Activities Award by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Professor Monye is a prolific writer. Her publications include: Law of Consumer Protection; Commercial Law; 59^th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Nigeria; and numerous journal articles.   She was the Editor-in-Chief of The Nigerian Law Journal, a Journal of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (2011 – 2015) as well as Consumer Journal, a publication of the Consumer Awareness Organisation, Enugu. She was the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, from 2010 – 2012. She is the President of the Consumer Awareness Organisation, a voluntary consumer association dedicated to consumer awareness creation and other issues of consumer concern. She is married with children.

Ashok Patil

NLSIU University, Bangalore, India

Chair and Professor of Consumer Law and Practice (Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India) at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU).  Chair and Professor of Consumer Law and Practice (Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India) at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU). He has a B.Sc (1993), LL.B. (1996), LL.M. (1998), and Ph.D all from Karnataka University, Dharwad, as well as qualifications in computer applications and cyber law. Until 1999 he practised before the High Court of Karnataka. In 2008 he joined NLSIU in August 2008 as an Associate Professor. Prior to this he was a Lecturer and then Principal at KLE’s B.V. Bellad Law College, Belgaum. Professor Patil has conducted many training programmes for consumer club teachers, Non-Governmental Organization, consumer forum members and designed and started a one year course on ‘Post Graduate Diploma in Consumer Law & Practice’ (PGDCLP) through Distance Education mode in 2011. He has published twenty articles and three books. Recently he has edited book
on ‘25 Years of Consumer Protection Act: Challenges and the Way Forward’. He is the Chief Editor for ‘International Journal on Consumer Law and Practice’and the Bi-Annual magzine “March of Consumer Law and Practice”. He has presented many research papers at the International and National Conferences, Seminars and Workshops. His area of specialization is Consumer Protection Laws, Law of Torts and Insurance Laws. He has done research work in Singapore, Washington DC, New York, Sydney, Thailand, Sri-lanka and Mexico on Consumer Protection Issues. In 2013, he was elected as an Executive Council Member of ‘International Association for Consumer Law’ at Univeristy of Sydney Conference. He is also the member of Government of India, Inter-ministerial Monitoring Committee on issue of Misleading Advertisements and Review Committee on 26th Report of the Standard Committee on Consumer Protection Amendment Bill, 2011. He has got ASIAN LAW INSTITUTE’S FELLOWSHIP in 2010 and recently, he has got prestigious National Award “LEGAL EDUCATION INNOVATION AWARD-2013” for his active role in development of consumer protection in India.Currently he is also Faculty Co-ordinator for Centre for Child and the Law and Faculty Advisor for Legal Services Clinic. Recently under his leadership Legal Service Clinic had won MACJANNET INTERNATIONAL SECOND PRIZE -2014 for its active social work to the society

Christine Riefa

University of Reading, England

Professor Christine Riefa is a professor of law specialising in consumer and e-commerce/new tech law. She is widely published on these topics. Her books include: Vulnerable Consumers and the Law: Consumer Protection and Access to Justice, edited with S. Saintier (Routledge 2021); Consumer Theories of Harm – An economic approach to consumer law enforcement and policy making (Hart 2019) with P. Siciliani and H. Gamper; Consumer Protection and Online Auction Platforms – towards a safer legal framework (Routledge 2016). Prof.  Riefa has acted as a consultant in a number of projects on various aspects of electronic commerce and new technologies for Consumers International, UNCTAD, BEUC, the European Commission and the EU Parliament, and national governments. She currently is the Coordinator of the UNCTAD Working Group on consumer protection in electronic commerce as part of UNCTAD Inter-Governmental Group of experts. She is one of the co-founding editors of the  Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML), a peer-reviewed Journal, published by Beck and available on Kluwer Online. She has been a Fulbright Scholar (Cleveland Marshall, Ohio, USA) and a Visiting Fellow of the Max Planck Institute (Hamburg, Germany). She holds a PhD in Market Law (competition and consumer laws) from the University of Montpellier, France.

Dan Wei

University of Macau, Macau

Dan Wei is Full Professor of Faculty of Law of the University of Macau. Her specialties include international trade law, international investment law, consumer protection, competition law, arbitration and Chinese law. Wei is Arbitrator of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Invited Expert of Ascertainment of Foreign Law of the Center for Ascertainment of Foreign Law of the Supreme People’s Court of China, Elected Director of China Association for Consumer Protection Research of China Law Society and Expert-Collaborator of National Secretariat for Consumers of Ministry of Justice of Brazil. Currently, she acts as the Rapporteur of the Committee of International Protection of Consumers of International Law Association (ILA).