Arthur Chaskalson SCOB, (24 November 1931 – 1 December 2012) was President of the

Constitutional Court of South Africa The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was fi ...

from 1994 to 2001 and

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

from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the

Rivonia Trial The Rivonia Trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life at the Palace of Justic ...

of 1963.

Career

Born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, Chaskalson was educated at Hilton College and later graduated from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

with a BCom (1952) and LLB Cum Laude (1954). In 1963, Chaskalson, along with

Bram Fischer Abraham Louis Fischer (23 April 1908 – 8 May 1975) was a South African Communist lawyer of Afrikaner descent, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela, at the Rivonia T ...

Joel Joffe Joel Goodman Joffe, Baron Joffe, (12 May 1932 – 18 June 2017) was a South African-born British lawyer and Labour peer in the House of Lords. Life and career Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to the Joffe family. His mother was born in Man ...

, Harry Schwarz,

George Bizos George Bizos ( el, Γιώργος Μπίζος; 14 November 19279 September 2020) was a Greek-South African human rights lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. He was noted for representing Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia T ...

Vernon Berrangé Vernon Celliers Berrangé SCOT ''"Defender of the People"'' (25 November 1900 – 14 September 1983) was an eminent South African human rights advocate (QC) Forebears Berrangé's forebears were in the third wave of French Huguenots who went to ...

and Harold Hanson, was part of the former President

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

's defence team in the

, which saw Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment. Chaskalson left a very successful legal practice to become a human rights lawyer, helping to establish the

Legal Resources Centre The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South ...

, a non-profit organisation modeled after the

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...

in the United States seeking to use the law to pursue justice and human rights around South Africa. Chaskalson served as the centre's director from November 1978 until September 1993. In 1975 and 1983, he was leading counsel in the cases of Veli Komani and Mehlolo Tom Rikhotso, which successfully challenged the legality of

apartheid legislation The system of racial segregation and oppression in South Africa known as ''apartheid'' was implemented and enforced by many acts and other laws. This legislation served to institutionalize racial discrimination and the dominance by white people o ...

seeking to establish influx control, crippling the government's ability to enforce influx control laws. As the first president of South Africa's new Constitutional Court in 1994, and then later Chief Justice of the same court (following a Constitutional amendment act in 2001 which changed his title), Chaskalson gained a reputation as one of South Africa's leading jurists in constitutional and human rights issues. Chaskalson was a member of the technical committee on constitutional issues appointed by the multi-party negotiating forum in May 1993, acting as a key advisor on the adoption of the

Interim Constitution of South Africa The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it required th ...

in 1993, and was regarded as one of the prime movers of a changing judiciary in South Africa during his time on the bench of the Constitutional Court. The court's first major decision under Chaskalson's leadership was the abolition of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

on 6 June 1995. More recently, Chaskalson had also become prominent internationally, becoming commissioner of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

in 1995 before being selected as one of South Africa's four members on the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that a ...

in 1999. In 1989, he consulted on the writing of the

Constitution of Namibia The Constitution of Namibia is the supreme law of the Republic of Namibia. Adopted on 9 February 1990, a month prior to Namibia's independence from apartheid South Africa, it was written by an elected constituent assembly. Preamble "Whereas ...

. He became the President of the International Commission of Jurists then from 2002 until 2008. On 31 May 2005, Chaskalson retired as Chief Justice and was replaced by his former deputy

Pius Langa Pius Nkonzo Langa SCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa, serving on the Constitutional Court. He was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela, he became Deputy Chief Justice in 2001 and was elevated as ...

. In his 2005 State of the Nation speech shortly before Chaskalson's retirement, South African President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

praised the Chief Justice as a "great son of our people" and a "giant among the architects of our democracy". Mbeki paid tribute to Chaskalson for everything he had done "as a South African, a lawyer and a judge, to shepherd us towards the construction of a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it". He died in Johannesburg on 1 December 2012 from leukemia and was buried in

Westpark Cemetery Westpark Cemetery is a large cemetery in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the resting place of some of the country's well-known citizens. It is a non-denomination designated burial ground, and thus has Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Chinese b ...

Personal life

Chaskalson was survived by his wife Lorraine, with whom he had two sons and five grandchildren. Chaskalson was Jewish and was associated with Progressive synagogues in Johannesburg.

Honours and awards

In 2002 he was awarded the

Order of the Baobab The Order of the Baobab is a South African civilian national honour, awarded to those for service in business and the economy; science, medicine, and for technological innovation; and community service. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and i ...

(Gold) for "exceptional service in law, constitutional jurisprudence and human rights".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaskalson, Arthur 1931 births 2012 deaths Chief justices of South Africa South African Jews Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa 20th-century South African judges Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration White South African anti-apartheid activists Burials at Westpark Cemetery People from Johannesburg University of the Witwatersrand alumni South African judges of international courts and tribunals Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa) Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in South Africa 21st-century South African judges Order of the Baobab

Career

Personal life

Honours and awards

See also

References