Justice Johann Kriegler is to step down as a founder, director, and chair of Freedom Under Law (FUL) after 15 years.
He served for eight years on the first Constitutional Court until 2002. Before that he spent 25 years at the Johannesburg Bar, and 10 years as a high court and appellate division judge.
After retirement he was involved in judicial education, emphasising constitutional and human rights and electoral dispute adjudication.
Justice Kriegler also co-drafted the judicial code of conduct, and for almost 40 years was the honorary patron of advocacy training in South Africa.
He headed the Independent Electoral Commission for the elections in 1994, and was instrumental in establishing and chairing the Independent Electoral Commission. He has also been engaged in electoral missions for the United Nations and the African Union.
He was involved in establishing the Black Lawyers’ Association and the Legal Resources Centre, and was the founding chair of Lawyers for Human Rights. He has served on the advisory board of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria (UP).
In addition, he advised numerous judges on principled thinking founded on the rule of law and respect for the individual.
Justice Kriegler is the author of a standard textbook on criminal procedure; is an extraordinary professor at UP; honorary consulting editor of Butterworths Constitutional Law Reports; and a member of the editorial advisory council of the Journal of South African Law.
In 2003 the General Council of the Bar awarded him the Sydney and Felicia Kentridge Award in recognition of his having been ‘adjudged to have made an outstanding contribution, worthy of public recognition, to law in Southern Africa’.
The board has elected as its new chair, Justice Azhar Cachalia, a director since 2021.