Acclaimed judge back in the spotlight

Judge Richard Goldstone, who turned 80 recently, is the subject of a lengthy feature article in the Sunday Times ahead of a biography by Daniel Terris, The Trials of Richard Goldstone, to be published this month. ‘I’m sure I’ll learn things about myself I had forgotten,’ he comments wryly in an article that touches on the high – and low – points of a remarkable career in law. The article notes Goldstone has a history of upsetting authority. In 1982, he upended the notorious Group Areas Act with a single judgment that enraged the apartheid government. Then, in the build-up to the transition in SA in 1994, he led an inquiry that verified the truth of claims about a third force. It notes that just as the wheels of justice keep turning so Goldstone hasn’t slowed down. He’s on the board of Physicians for Human Rights (among other boards); is a trustee of the South African Student Solidarity Foundation for Education, a fundraising initiative by former student leaders to help current students in need; and spends considerable time working with the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability. He is also fighting grand corruption with a US district judge in Boston, Mark Wolf. They are working on a project called Triple I, Integrity Initiatives International, which aims to pave the way for an international anti-corruption court that functions like the International Criminal Court – countries might fail to investigate their own kleptocrats but the international court has jurisdiction. He has many wonderful achievements, but he ranks being a member of the first Constitutional Court as a highlight of my career. ‘It was very exhilarating. It was a symbol of a new era,’ he is quoted as saying.