Imprisoning the Nation: Minimum Sentences in South Africa
University of the Western Cape Faculty of Law Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Thursday 19 October 2017 19h00 Imprisoning the Nation: Minimum Sentences in South Africa by Edwin Cameron* Constitutional Court of South Africa * I am indebted to my United States law clerks, Jacob Foster (2007) and Martin Willner (2017), for substantial help, as well as to Clare Ballard, of Lawyers for Human Rights, for helpful suggestions and to Lukas Muntingh for providing important references. Introduction: A Court with its foundations in prison 1. It is a great pleasure to be here today. I want to thank the University, and the Dean, Professor Bernard Martin, in particular, for granting me the honour of speaking in the University’s distinguished lecture series. 2. The Constitutional Court, the building itself, is where I would want to start my journey with you tonight. 3. Those of you who have visited the Court will have seen its uniquely beautiful, accessible architecture, which people from all over the world admire. 4. Unlike the top courts of many other countries, the Constitutional Court is not a heavy structure erected at the head of a huge, imposing set of stairs, with Greco-Roman columns and a massive pediment looking down on intimidatingly on litigants and members of the public. 1 5. Instead, rather than seeking inspiration abroad, the Court’s architects examined our own past and the significance of the spot in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, that the Court would occupy. 1 6. The Court itself stands alongside the Old Fort Prison – the prison where Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi were held.
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