Promoting equality and public integrity: The role of constitutional courts

Three judges, from three different legal traditions, will speak on the role that Constitutional Courts have been playing in their different countries. They will speak at a Forum on 4 October from 4 to 6 p.m.at Jetwing Colombo Seven, Ward Place, Colombo 7.

The forum is being organised by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Rule of Law, Asia Program.

The three judges, Chief Justice Alejandro Linares-Cantillo, JusticeEdwin Cameron, and Justice Ilwon Kang, come from three different legal traditions: The Latin American, the South African and the East Asian. Each of their societies have had to manage different socio-political and historical contexts including economic prosperity, political violence and social inequality. 

The three judges will reflect on how Constitutional Courts have been contributing to the transformation of unequal social relations in their different societies and advancing public integrity and the rule of law. 

Alejandro Linares-Cantillo, is the current Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, the highest court in Colombia.Justice Edwin Cameron has served for almost 10 years on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the highest court in that country. Justice Ilwon Kang, recently retired from the Constitutional Court of South Korea having served for six years on the court. 

Constitutional and Supreme Courts have begun to play a more robust role in promoting equality, public integrity and the rule of law.The idea that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and its values and norms should be advanced and protected has gained currency in several Asian and other courts.A consequence has been the increasing role that judges and courts have been required to play in the governance of their societies.

Constitutional and Supreme Courts have been required to decide on the impeachment of holders of public office, the registration and proscription of political parties, the interpretation of religious statutes, the legality of personal laws and intrusions into privacy, disputes on centre – state relations, and the constitutional validity of public policy.In some countries, international law, international human rights norms and the Directive Principles of State Policy found in the Constitution, have been explicitly integrated into constitutional adjudication. In many countries comparative law has been widely cited.

Accompanying the robustness of courts in many parts of the world has been the ebb and flow of politics.Courts in many countries have had to respond to the challenges of authoritarianism, the spread of violent extremism and religious radicalisation, economic prosperity and economic marginalisation, acute poverty, the abuse of power for personal gain, growing inequality, gender-based violence, inter-religious violence and threats to independent institutions.

Institutional design, judicial personalities, legal and constitutional history, and extra-legal constraints have all had an impact on the robustness and responses of Constitutional and Supreme Courts in different parts of the world. 

The three judges will reflect on how courts in these different legal traditions have been responding to the social, economic and political issues in their different societies. 

Participation is by invitation. Contact Lakmaliat the International Centre for Ethnic Studies for registration, on: 11 2685085; 11 2679745 or [email protected]. 

Alejandro Linares-Cantillo is the current Chief Justice of the Colombian Constitutional Court. Justice Linares obtained his J.D from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, an LL.M from Harvard University and a PhD from the Universidad Externado of Colombia. 

Chief Justice Linares has practiced law for more than 30 years in both the public and private sectors. He has taught in universities in Colombia including the Universidad de Los Andes, Universidad del Rosario and Universidad del Norte. In the public sector, prior to becoming a Justice at the Constitutional Court, he held different positions in the executive branch. In the private sector, he was a partner of one of the leading law firms for more than 20 years, where his practice focused on matters of transnational litigation and international business. 

Edwin Cameron has been a Justice of South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, since 1 January 2009.He studied at Stellenbosch and at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.During apartheid he was a human rights lawyer.President Mandela appointed him a judge in 1994.Before the Constitutional Court, he was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal for eight years, and a Judge of the High Court for six.

He was an outspoken critic of President Mbeki’s AIDS-denialist policies.His prize-winning memoir, ‘Witness to AIDS’, has been published in South Africa, the UK, the US and in translation in Germany and in China. He chaired the governing council of the University of the Witwatersrand for more than 10 years (1998-2008) and remains involved in many charitable and public causes.

His latest book, ‘Justice: A Personal Account’ (2014) won the South African Literary Award for creative non-fiction in 2015.It has been translated and will shortly be published in Korea.

He has received many honours for his work, including a special award by the Bar of England and Wales for his ‘contribution to international jurisprudence and the protection of human rights’ (2002).He is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford (2003), and an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple, London (2008). He holds honorary degrees from King’s College London (2008), University of the Witwatersrand (2009), Oxford (2011), St Andrews (2012), Stellenbosch (2015) and Sussex (2016).

Ilwon Kang graduated from Seoul National University in 1982. He was appointed as a judge of the Seoul District Court in 1985. Kang served as a judge for 27 years. During his career in the court, he received an LL. M at the University of Michigan and worked as an expert advisor for the several judicial reform committees in Korea. In 2012, he was selected as one of nine Justices of the Constitutional Court. In 2013, he became a member of the European Commission for the Democracy through Law (better known as the Venice Commission). He was elected as a Bureau member of the Venice Commission in 2015 and re-elected in 2017. He recently retired from the Constitutional Court.