Human rights activist Albie Sachs opened with a joke.
“Would you say your court in South Africa is an activist court?” Sachs said, recounting a question an old friend of his asked him. Sachs replied, “Yes, but we also have an activist constitution.”
However, there was a truth to his humor. Sachs is not fond of judicial activism.
Sachs, a former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a notable figure in the anti-Apartheid movement, gave his lecture “Confessions of an Activist Judge,” to an audience in Bush Auditorium in Cornell Hall on Monday.
He expressed his belief that a strong constitution is enough on its own and does not need the subjective interpretation of a judge to intervene.
“A judge should not intervene with legislature,” Sachs said. “Liberty thrives on interconnectedness.”
As a former judge, Sachs knows what it means to enforce an objective law. In the presence of judicial activism, he said the concept loses its vigor. Sachs said judges that abuse their power abandon the honesty and integrity that validate justice.
Sachs became involved in human rights activism when he was 17. He took part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign, which fought the insensitive laws being passed by the Nationalist party.
Sachs spoke of what life in South Africa was like when apartheid laws were passed.
After the National Party took office in South Africa, brutal acts of segregation became endorsed. The new government was also quick to detain any alleged same-sex couples.
After actively working against apartheid, Sachs survived an assassination attempt and 20-year exile from South Africa.
Post-apartheid, Sachs was one of the justices that aided in the legalization of same-sex marriage in South Africa.
“Same-sex couples should have the same rights as spouses,” Sachs said. “Such restriction only promotes inequality.”
Sachs also aided in drafting South Africa’s first constitution. He said by implementing teachings of a constitution into daily lives, people are able to appreciate the liberties they live under. It is also through honorable members of the justice and jury that ensure these values are upheld.
“In a constitutional democracy, the hands of justice are never tied,” Sachs said. “A constitution begins in the preamble by speaking of achieving and moving towards greater justice.”
