And Justice For All: Arthur Chaskalson and the Struggle for Equality in South Africa

by Stephen Ellmann

Overview

And Justice For All: Arthur Chaskalson and the Struggle for Equality in South Africa is a biography of a remarkable life lived in service both to law and to the struggle for social change and justice. The social change it describes is the victory over apartheid, which was won on several fronts and through the efforts of people in many nations, but an important one of those fronts lay in the courts of South Africa itself. In exploring Chaskalson’s life and career, we appreciate more clearly the roles lawyers can play in social change and the achievement of a just social order, and at the same time we gain insight into the combination of upbringing, experience, and character that shapes a man first into a 'cause lawyer’ and then into a path-breaking and foundation-laying judge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781588384287
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	03/17/2020
Pages:	864
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

An award-winning author on legal ethics and an expert in clinical legal education, constitutional law, and South African law, STEPHEN ELLMANN (1951-2019) also pursued his deep interest in legal education through his work as New York Law Schools' Director of Clinical and Experiential Learning. As a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama from 1977–1983, his practice included institutional reform litigation for mentally disabled people and prison inmates, voting rights cases, anti-Ku Klux Klan suits, and defense work in capital murder trials. While in Montgomery, Professor Ellmann began a long career in legal education by teaching courses on constitutional law and federal courts.

An award-winning author on legal ethics and an expert in clinical legal education, constitutional law, and South African law, STEPHEN ELLMANN (1951-2019) also pursued his deep interest in legal education through his work as New York Law Schools' Director of Clinical and Experiential Learning. As a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama from 1977–1983, his practice included institutional reform litigation for mentally disabled people and prison inmates, voting rights cases, anti-Ku Klux Klan suits, and defense work in capital murder trials. While in Montgomery, Professor Ellmann began a long career in legal education by teaching courses on constitutional law and federal courts.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xv

Chapter 1 Family 1

Chapter 2 Preparing for Practice 18

Chapter 3 Finding his Course 31

Chapter 4 Early Political Cases 41

Chapter 5 Romance 60

Chapter 6 Rivonia: The Defence Team and its Work 72

Chapter 7 The Rivonia Accused Make their Case 91

Chapter 8 Rivonia's Aftermath 123

Chapter 9 After Rivonia: Arthur's Practice 148

Chapter 10 At Home 197

Chapter 11 Founding and Leading the Legal Resources Centre 228

Chapter 12 The Work of the Legal Resources Centre 272

Chapter 13 Lawyering beyond the LRC - and the Delmas Treason Trial 310

Chapter 14 In (and near) Academia 348

Chapter 15 Negotiations Begin 368

Chapter 16 Shaping South Africa's Constitution 385

Chapter 17 Forming the Constitutional Court 431

Chapter 18 Leading the Constitutional Court and the Judiciary 484

Chapter 19 Jurisprudence: Establishing the Court's Constitutional Authority 525

Chapter 20 Jurisprudence: Regulating Power 573

Chapter 21 Jurisprudence: The Protection of Rights 614

Chapter 22 Jurisprudence: The Process of Transformation and Saying Goodbye 680

Chapter 23 After 'Retirement' 715

Chapter 24 At Home Again 747

Chapter 25 Departure 757

Notes 776

Index 824

Editorial Reviews

If there is something like a quiet hero of the South African revolution, then Arthur Chaskalson was that person. From his work as a young man defending Nelson Mandela and the others accused in the Rivonia Trial, to his founding of the Legal Resources Centre, to his appointment as the first president of South Africa's Constitutional Court, and then as president of the International Commission of Jurists, he served—and continues to serve—as a model of clarity, humanity, and integrity. If there was a form of politics in his work, it lay in matching the principles of law to the principles of justice and living that out in his life. This beautiful biography by Stephen Ellmann—deft, thorough, judicious, moving—lives on as a testament to its subject and also to the person who wrote it.

author of Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary - Stephen Clingman

It is not surprising that the Chaskalson family invited Professor Ellmann to write the biography of Justice Arthur Chaskalson. Professor Ellmann shares some traits with his biographical subject, including that they were both brilliant individuals with a deep love for the law and each possessed a disarming humility. They were also men of extraordinary depth and legal talent, unequivocally committed to the cause of social justice, particularly racial justice. Not surprisingly then, Ellmann's biography of Chaskalson, And Justice For All, is a story of remarkable human achievement, of resolute struggle against an evil political system, and he tells it with solicitous attention to detail. This notable new work is a must-read for all.

Penelope Andrews

Arthur Chaskalson’s career spanned the decades of struggle against apartheid and the creation of a democratic South Africa, in both of which challenges he played a pivotal role. Steve Ellmann — who became the leading American authority on the role of law in that struggle and the development of constitutional law by the new Constitutional Court, of which Chaskalson was the first Chief Justice — was the ideal person to document and analyze his life and contributions. Both are greatly missed. This comprehensive account will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in law under stress and law’s emancipatory potential.

author of Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid, 1980–1994 - Richard Abel

And Justice for All is an astonishing work: astonishing in the magnitude of the effort, the authority of the writing, and its historical detail. Having been a close friend of Arthur Chaskalson for sixty-three years, I am amazed at Steve Ellmann's ability to synthesize and weave together a vast amount of history into one coherent work, one which demonstrates a good knowledge of and familiarity with South Africa, including its particular legal and political history. This is a book of utmost importance.

Denis Kuny

An impressive work of extraordinary scholarship.

Midwest Book Review

If there is something like a quiet hero of the South African revolution, then Arthur Chaskalson was that person. From his work as a young man defending Nelson Mandela and the others accused in the Rivonia Trial, to his founding of the Legal Resources Centre, to his appointment as the first president of South Africa's Constitutional Court, and then as president of the International Commission of Jurists, he served—and continues to serve—as a model of clarity, humanity, and integrity. If there was a form of politics in his work, it lay in matching the principles of law to the principles of justice and living that out in his life. This beautiful biography by Stephen Ellmann—deft, thorough, judicious, moving—lives on as a testament to its subject and also to the person who wrote it. — Stephen Clingman, author of Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary

Source

Arthur Chaskalson’s career spanned the decades of struggle against apartheid and the creation of a democratic South Africa, in both of which challenges he played a pivotal role. Steve Ellmann — who became the leading American authority on the role of law in that struggle and the development of constitutional law by the new Constitutional Court, of which Chaskalson was the first Chief Justice — was the ideal person to document and analyze his life and contributions. Both are greatly missed. This comprehensive account will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in law under stress and law’s emancipatory potential.

1980–1994 author of Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid

And Justice for All is an astonishing work: astonishing in the magnitude of the effort, the authority of the writing, and its historical detail. Having been a close friend of Arthur Chaskalson for sixty-three years, I am amazed at Steve Ellmann's ability to synthesize and weave together a vast amount of history into one coherent work, one which demonstrates a good knowledge of and familiarity with South Africa, including its particular legal and political history. This is a book of utmost importance. — Denis Kuny, legendary South African anti-apartheid defense lawyer (retired)

An impressive work of extraordinary scholarship. — Midwest Book Review

If there is something like a quiet hero of the South African revolution, then Arthur Chaskalson was that person. From his work as a young man defending Nelson Mandela and the others accused in the Rivonia Trial, to his founding of the Legal Resources Centre, to his appointment as the first president of South Africa's Constitutional Court, and then as president of the International Commission of Jurists, he served—and continues to serve—as a model of clarity, humanity, and integrity. If there was a form of politics in his work, it lay in matching the principles of law to the principles of justice and living that out in his life. This beautiful biography by Stephen Ellmann—deft, thorough, judicious, moving—lives on as a testament to its subject and also to the person who wrote it. — Stephen Clingman, author of Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary

It is not surprising that the Chaskalson family invited Professor Ellmann to write the biography of Justice Arthur Chaskalson. Professor Ellmann shares some traits with his biographical subject, including that they were both brilliant individuals with a deep love for the law and each possessed a disarming humility. They were also men of extraordinary depth and legal talent, unequivocally committed to the cause of social justice, particularly racial justice. Not surprisingly then, Ellmann's biography of Chaskalson, And Justice For All, is a story of remarkable human achievement, of resolute struggle against an evil political system, and he tells it with solicitous attention to detail. This notable new work is a must-read for all. — Penelope Andrews, professor, New York Law School, president, Law and Society Association

Arthur Chaskalson’s career spanned the decades of struggle against apartheid and the creation of a democratic South Africa, in both of which challenges he played a pivotal role. Steve Ellmann — who became the leading American authority on the role of law in that struggle and the development of constitutional law by the new Constitutional Court, of which Chaskalson was the first Chief Justice — was the ideal person to document and analyze his life and contributions. Both are greatly missed. This comprehensive account will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in law under stress and law’s emancipatory potential. — Richard Abel, author of Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid, 1980–1994

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