The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force. Between 1961 and 1994, the office of head of state was the state presidency.
Arthur Chaskalson SCOB, was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is the supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), formerly known as the Appellate Division, is the second-highest court of appeal in South Africa below the Constitutional Court. The country's apex court from 1910 to 1994, it no longer holds that position, having been displaced in constitutional matters by the Constitutional Court in 1994, and in all matters by 2013. It is located in Bloemfontein. Bloemfontein is often, and has been traditionally referred to, as the "judicial capital" of South Africa because of the court, although the Constitutional Court is based in Johannesburg.
The following lists events that happened during 1996 in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during 1931 in South Africa.
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, and highcourt of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of a supreme court are binding on all other courts in a nation and are not subject to further review by any other court. Supreme courts typically function primarily as appellate courts, hearing appeals from decisions of lower trial courts, or from intermediate-level appellate courts. A supreme court can also, in certain circumstances, act as a court of original jurisdiction.
Johann Christiaan Kriegler is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 1995 to November 2002. Formerly a practising silk in Johannesburg, he joined the bench as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division in 1984. He was also the first chairperson of the post-apartheid Independent Electoral Commission and Electoral Commission of South Africa.
Ismail Mahomed SCOB SC was a South African Memon lawyer and jurist who served as the first post-Apartheid Chief Justice of South Africa from January 1997 until his death in June 2000. He was also the Chief Justice of Namibia from 1992 to 1999 and the inaugural Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 1996.
Tholakele Hope "Tholie" Madala was a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa between October 1994 and October 2008. He was appointed to the court by Nelson Mandela upon the court's inception. Before that, he practised as a human rights lawyer in the Transkei, taking silk in 1993, and served briefly in the Mthatha Supreme Court in 1994. He retired from the bench in 2008.
Pius Nkonzo LangaSCOB was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009. Formerly a human rights lawyer, he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa upon its inception in 1995. He was the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from November 2001 until May 2005, when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Chief Justiceship. He was South Africa's first black African Chief Justice.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South African lawyers, including Arthur Chaskalson, Felicia Kentridge, and Geoff Budlender, under the guidance of American civil rights lawyers Jack Greenberg and Michael Meltsner, then Director-Counsel and former First Assistant Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund respectively.
The Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa is a judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the second-highest judicial post in the Republic of South Africa, after the Chief Justice. The post, originally called "Deputy President of the Constitutional Court", was created in September 1995 by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, 1995, which was an amendment to the Interim Constitution. The position was retained by the final Constitution which came into force in February 1997. In November 2001 the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa restructured the judiciary, and the post was renamed to "Deputy Chief Justice".
John Mowbray Didcott was a South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 1995 until his death in October 1998. He joined the bench in 1975 as a judge of the Natal Provincial Division, where he was known for defending human rights during the apartheid era.
The Judicial Service Commission is a body specially constituted by the South African Constitution to recommend persons for appointment to the judiciary of South Africa.
The judiciary of South Korea is the judicial branch (사법부) of South Korean central government, established by Chapter 5 and 6 of the Constitution of South Korea.
The chief justice of the Cape Colony was the most senior judge in the British Cape colony and the head of its Supreme Court. The office was created by the 1827 Charter of Justice, by which the colonial government overhauled the administration of justice at the Cape, and ceased to exist in 1910 upon the creation of the Union of South Africa.
Hendrik Johannes Otto van Heerden was a South African retired judge who was the first Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from 1997 to 2000. Formerly an advocate and silk in Bloemfontein, he joined the bench in the Free State Provincial Division in 1978 and was promoted to the Appellate Division in 1982. He was Acting Chief Justice of South Africa in 2000.
