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| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
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2010-01-01 |
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| Name | Arthur Chaskalson |
| Address |
, , South Africa |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 24, 1931
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| Died | December 01, 2012
(81 years)
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| Contributor | 411 Name Removed |
| Last Modifed | IndyGeorgia
Dec 15, 2020 09:20pm |
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| Info | Arthur Chaskalson was born in Johannesburg on 24 November 1931. He is married to Dr Lorraine Chaskalson, and they have two children, Matthew, born 12 August 1963 and Jerome, born 1 August 1967.
He is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, B Com (1952), LLB, Cum Laude (1954). He was a member of the University's football team and was selected for the Combined South African Universities football team in 1952. He was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar in May 1956 and took silk in July 1971. During his career at the Bar he appeared as counsel on behalf of members of the liberation movements in several major political trials, including the Rivonia Trial in 1963/1964 at which Mr. Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the African National Congress were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He also appeared as counsel in major commercial disputes.
In 1978 he helped establish the Legal Resources Centre, a non-profit organisation, which sought to use law to pursue justice and human rights in South Africa, and was its director from November 1978 until September 1993. During that period he was leading counsel in several cases in which challenges were launched by the Legal Resources Centre against the implementation of apartheid laws.
He was a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council from 1967 to 1971 and from 1973 to 1984, the Chairman of the Johannesburg Bar in 1976 and again in 1982, a member and later Convenor of the National Bar Examination Board (1979-1991), and the Vice Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa (1982-1987).
He has been a member of the Board of the Faculty of Law of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg since 1979, was an Honorary Professor of Law at that University from 1981 to 1995, a member of its board for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies from 1979 to 1994, a member of the National Council of Lawyers for Human Rights (1980-1991) and Chairman of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for South Africa (1988-1993).
He has been a member of the Judicial Service Commission since 1994 (he is currently its chairman) and has been Joint Honorary President of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa since 1994.
He was elected as an honorary member of the Bar Association of the City of New York in 1985 and of the Boston Bar Association in 1991, was a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, 1987 - 1988, was Vice Chairman of the International Legal Aid Division of the International Bar Association (1983-1993), is a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists (elected in1995), and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (elected 2001). Since June 1999 he has been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, having been selected by South Africa to be one of its four members on that Court.
He was awarded the degrees of Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa by the University of Natal in 1986, the University of the Witwatersrand in 1990, and Rhodes University in 1997, and will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa by the University of Amsterdam on 8 January 2002. He received the Premier Group Award for prestigious service by a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1983, the Claude Harris Leon Foundation award for community service and the Wits Alumni Honour Award for exceptional service to the community, both in 1984, and was the joint recipient with Dr.S.Magoba of the Human Rights Award for 1990 of the Foundation for Freedom and Human Rights, Berne, Switzerland, and has received awards for his work in the promotion of human rights from the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and the General Council of the Bar of South Africa (the Sydney and Felicia Kentridge award).
He was a consultant to the Namibian Constituent Assembly in connection with the drafting of the Constitution of Namibia (December 1989-March 1990), a Consultant to the African National Congress on constitutional issues (April 1990-April 1994), and served as a member of the Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues, appointed by the Multi Party Negotiating Forum in May 1993 to give advice on constitutional matters to the Forum (which negotiated the transition to democracy in South Africa), and to draft on its behalf the transitional constitution, which was finalised and adopted in December 1993.
He has participated in conferences and delivered lectures concerned with constitutional issues, human rights and legal services, in South Africa, Australia, Austria, Bosnia, Canada, Denmark, Eire, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Mauritius, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United States of America, United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In June 1994 he was appointed by President Mandela to be the first President of South Africa's new Constitutional Court, which is the highest court in the land in all constitutional matters, and on 22 November 2001 he became the Chief Justice of South Africa.
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