Albie Sachs @ UCHICAGO [DRAFT]



With the Alito hearings going on in the background, I took the opportunity to attend Albie Sach's discussion of the South African High Court's Ruling to extend marriage to include same-sex couples at the University of Chicago's Divinity School.

While the discussion was focused on the issue at hand, we were treated to the south african sensibility on these matters of constitutional protections and freedoms from discriminations throughout. It was refreshing to hear someone talk about making sense of the relationship between law and society and the role of the courts in that interaction without it automatically being a polemic. In a world as complex as ours, there ought to be more than two ways of looking at any/every social problem.

[note: I might come back to this here and write about the topic itself or Sachs' description of the arguments for/against. In a nutshell, the SA constitution's bill of rights includes a right to equality and a right to dignity, as well as freedom from discrimination based on a number of things including sexual orientation ]

Beyond the discussion of "marriage-rights", there were some interesting detours into South African history, the role of international law as a reference for judges, the role of social context for the law, visible and invisible discriminations, a quick comparative on how South African law looks upon the American "hot-button" questions (capital punishment: no, torture: no, reproductive rights: yes), and the high standards that an open democracy must maintain.

During the Q & A segment, after a particularly complicated question, Sachs looked at the moderators and said, "I forgot that Chicago, your place here, is a very sober, solemn place". For a moment, I was proud.

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My Albie Sachs "credentials": I've had Sachs' "The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter" on my South Africa reading list for years. Now that I've heard him speak, I'll prioritize reading the book.

Posted: Wed - January 11, 2006 at 11:09 PM      

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