Associate Professor Andrew Hutchison

Biography

Dr Hutchison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town.  He has been a member of this department since January 2007.  Dr Hutchison is a contracts specialist and has convened the course on Commercial Transactions Law at UCT since 2010.  Dr Hutchison’s affinity for contracts began during his LLM studies at UCT (2005-2006), and this was carried through to his PhD thesis on fundamental change of circumstances in contract law (hardship), completed in 2010.  Dr Hutchison has published a body of work in leading South African and international peer-reviewed law journals and edited books on contract law.  A theme running through most of these articles is the role to be given to good faith or fairness in South African contract law.  Dr Hutchison is interested in the comparative and historical angles to this question, as well as (more recently) the constitutional and relational dimensions, with a particular emphasis on social justice.  Dr Hutchison is interested in the curriculum review movement in South Africa, particularly these questions: (1) ‘What is African about contracting in South Africa?’; and (2) ‘What is the role of community in contracting?’

Research Interest

Commercial contract law  Insurance law Credit, especially consumer credit Customary/informal contract norms Constitutional development of contract law Comparative contract law