Sachs

Albie Sachs, who was appointed an A.D. White Professor-at-Large in 2012 for a six-year term, will make his first official visit to campus as such Aug. 28-Sept. 7.

Sachs is a lawyer, judge, activist, scholar and author and a renowned former South African Constitutional Court justice and anti-apartheid activist.

He will present a public lecture, “Liberating the Mind and Liberating the Heart: South African Experience in Dealing with Terrorism and Torture,” Thursday, Aug. 29, at the Biotechnology Building at 4:30 p.m. This talk is held in conjunction with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies Distinguished Foreign Policy Speaker Series.

While on campus, he also will deliver “The Fourie Case:  Same-Sex Marriage in the South African Constitutional Court,” the first Berger lecture of the year, Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 12:15 p.m. in the Moot Court Room and speak at several Law School classes and on West Campus.

Sachs will discuss what is behind the so-called “Mandela miracle” – the struggles inside the Liberation Movement not to use terrorism or torture. The result, says Sachs, is one of the world’s greatest constitutions, and one that works.

Sachs worked at the forefront of the struggle for justice and freedom in South Africa during apartheid. Even through a period of exile and losing and arm and sight in his eye from a bomb planted in his car, he strove to make South Africa a better place.

After graduating from the University of Cape Town and passing the Cape bar, Sachs defended people who were charged under racist statutes; as a result, he has been subjected to imprisonment, solitary confinement and detention.

In the 1980s, Sachs helped to draft the African National Congress’ (ANC) Code of Conduct (along with its statues) and to prepare a new democratic constitution for South Africa.

In the 1990s, Sachs became the national executive of the ANC and a member of the Constitutional Committee. He took part in the negotiations that made South Africa a constitutional democracy, and he was appointed by Nelson Mandela to serve in the Constitutional Court. Through his time as judge, he earned the reputation as the conscience of the Court and made landmark judgments, including one that made South Africa the fifth nation to recognize same-sex marriage.

In 2012, he was appointed by the Kenyan government to serve on a board to vet Kenyan judges and magistrates and remove those with “doubtful conduct.” This followed the adoption of a new Constitution in Kenya in 2010.

His books on human rights include “The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs” (1978), “Running to Maputo” (1990), “The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law” (2009) and “The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter” (2011).