The strange alchemy of life and law / Albie Sachs.

Includes index.

Tales of terrorism and torture -- Tock-tick : the working of a judicial mind -- A man called Henri : truth, reconciliation, and justice -- Reason and passion -- Laughing matters -- Reason and judgment -- The judge who cried : the judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights -- Human dignity and proportionality -- The secular and the sacred : the dual challenges of same-sex marriage -- The beginning and the end.

"From a young age Albie Sachs played a prominent part in the struggle for justice in South Africa. As a result he was detained in solitary confinement, tortured by sleep deprivation and eventually blown up by a car bomb which cost him his right arm and the sight of an eye. His experiences provoked an outpouring of creative thought on the role of law as a protector of human dignity in the modern world, and a lifelong commitment to seeing a new era of justice established in South Africa. After playing an important part in drafting South Africa's post-apartheid Constitution, he was appointed by Nelson Mandela to be a member of the country's first Constitutional Court. Over the course of his fifteen year term on the Court he has grappled with the major issues confronting modern South Africa, and the challenges posed to the fledgling democracy as it sought to overcome the injustices of the apartheid regime. Sachs conveys in intimate fashion what it has been like to be a judge in these unique circumstances, how his extraordinary life has influenced his approach to the cases before him, and his views on the nature of justice and its achievement through law"--Jacket.