Liberating the Law (ePub)

Our democratic constitutional order was won through the contribution and sacrifices of many brave men and women. Ismail Mahomed, the first Chief Justice of democratic South Africa, was one such individual of distinction. He was a formidable jurist and a great humanist.
Ismail Mahomed was also a brilliant, incisive, visionary, passionate and devoted legal activist. He was immersed in the spirit of the great Roman-Dutch law philosophers like Johannes Voet and Hugo de Groot, as well as the rich spiritual tradition of the East. He found inspiration in many quarters, drawing variously on the works of Aristotle, Justinian, Rabindranath Tagore and Allama Iqbal.
The great legacy he leaves behind in the form of judgments, speeches and academic papers strongly affirms his steadfast belief that the administration of the law should flow from ubuntu and be guided by an abiding respect for the humanity of others.
On more than one occasion he spoke movingly about how our love for each other was the basis for a new society. He held firm to the notion that morality, undergirded by principled commitment to the equality of all, must forever remain the bedrock of justice.
During apartheid, he was among a handful of principled lawyers who challenged the immoral basis of statutes flowing from an unrepresentative Parliament.
After being called to the Bar he had a singular preoccupation with challenging unjust laws, many of which affected him personally.