Judge Albie Sachs, distinguished anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, scholar, author and former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa appointed by President Nelson Mandela in 1995, has spent his entire life asking and seeking the answers to these questions.
Justice Sachs’ activist career began at the age of 17, in 1952, when, as a law student, he participated in the Unjust Laws Challenge Campaign, in which a then 38-year-old Nelson Mandela was the number one volunteer. Throughout his life, the tools of Albie’s quest for freedom were both law and creativity. The power of these tools was best expressed in his contribution to the creation of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which is more than a court, but the physical embodiment of art and justice. Using these tools, Sachs also wrote a number of landmark rulings, including one that made South Africa the fifth country in the world and the first in Africa to recognise same-sex marriage.
Today, at 89, Sachs believes even more in the power of law and creativity. Can creativity ‘still’ change the world?
Join Sachs for a conversation on creativity, freedom, law and the creation of a country.