The cover of “The Srange Alchemy of Life and Law”. Photo source: blog.oup.com
Albie Sachs’ latest book, “The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law”, came out in 2010 on the eve of the former SA Consitutional Court justice’s retirement from active judicial life. It is a book about some of the landmark rulings that the country’s apex court has made since its inception in 1996 when South Africa got its democratic-era Constitution.
It starts with the famous AZAPO case, which was a challenge on the constitutionality of a statute that allowed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to grant amnesty to apartheid torturers and assassins, and to free them from any future civil and criminal liability for their ghastly deeds.
Other famous cases on social and economic rights also feature in the book. They are interspersed with Sachs’ ruminations about the legal principles at play and the behind-the-scenes human emotions that the learned justices bring to bear when they rule on complex legal matters.
The weeping judge
Overall, one gets a sense that judges are also human. For example, when Sachs sheds a tear after a case about socio-economic rights. This is the stuff that never makes into legal journal reports or newspaper stories about legal judgments.
Here is an example of a moving passage about the judge’s reaction at the conclusion of a case that had been brought before the court in the early 2000s:
“|The courtroom had been packed with people wearing T-shirts saying “HIV Positive”. There had been complete silence as we handed down judgement. Then moments later we had gone out to the passage at the back, I heard cheering, and had suddenly found myself with tears in my eyes. It had not been because of emotion about the impact of Aids upon our country. The tears had come because of an overwhelming sense of pride at being a member of a court that protected fundamental rights and secured dignity for all”|.
Judge Albie Sachs delivers a speech. Photo source: myshtetl.co.za
In his own words
There is an interesting video from www.vimeo.com in which Sachs discusses his remarkable career as a lawyer and a judge. It was taken during a public discussion of the book in the United Kingdom in 2010. The link to the video is attached below:
Sabelo Ndlangisa 