Sandile Ngcobo (born 1 March 1953) is former justice in the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He served as Chief Justice from 2009 to 2011. In 2017, the Southern African Public Law journal published a special issue in volume 32 of the journal under the title: "Twenty-First Century Constitutional Jurisprudence of South Africa: the Contribution of Former Chief Justice S. Sandile Ngcobo" in which academics, judges and practitioners examined Justice Ngcobo's jurisprudence during his tenure at the bench. The special issue was edited by Professor Ntombizozuko Dyani-Mhango, a former clerk of the Justice Ngcobo. See,

Education

Justice Ngcobo received a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

and he holds an LLM degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, where he is a visiting professor of law. He is also a visiting professor of law at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

and an adjunct professor of law at

Cornell Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-deg ...

Career

From 1986 to 1987, Ngcobo clerked for

A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Jr. (February 25, 1928 – December 14, 1998) was an American civil rights, civil rights advocate, historian, presidential adviser, and United States federal judge, federal court judge. From 1990 to 1991, he served as ...

, a

United States federal judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. Cou ...

. Ngcobo was made an honorary professor of law by the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. He was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1999 by

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. Prior to this he was a judge in the

Cape High Court The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over th ...

and the Labour Appeal Court. On 6 August 2009, President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

nominated Ngcobo to succeed

Pius Langa Pius Nkonzo Langa Order of the Baobab, SCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa, serving on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court. He was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela, h ...

Chief Justice of South Africa The Chief Justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the c ...

in October 2009.

References

1953 births Living people University of Natal alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Chief justices of South Africa People from Durban 20th-century South African judges 21st-century South African judges {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub