We, the People

Albie Sachs is an activist and a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994–2009). He is the author of several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter and The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law. Sachs has travelled to many countries sharing his experiences in order to help heal divided societies.

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; I. Initiation; The Future of Multiculturalism in South Africa: The vision of the Constitution; The Original 'Pinch-me' Moment; II. Hope and caution in exile; The First and Last Word - Freedom; III. We have to mistrust ourselves; Preparing Ourselves for Power; Perfectibility and Corruptibility; IV. Inventing a constitution; South Africa's Unconstitutional Constitution: The transition from power to lawful power; V. With clean hands and without Secrets; Why I Supported Amnesty; Meeting the Man Who Organized a Bomb in My Car; Soft Vengeance; VI. Reconciling the past and the future; Archives, Truth and Reconciliation; The Place Next Door to Number Four; Free Spirits and Ravaged Souls; Towards the Liberation and Revitalisation of Customary Law; Values, Nation Formation and Social Compacting; VII. Living constitutional law and ubuntu; Constitutional Court Simulation, Case No.2: The constitutionality of the death penalty; A New African Jurisprudence: From abstract judicial rulings to; purposive transformative jurisprudence; Equality Jurisprudence; VIII. More than crumbs from the table: Enforcing social and economic rights; Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged; Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Bringing human solidarity back into the rights equation; IX. Struggle continues; Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability; From Refugee to Judge on Refugee Law; A Conversation About the Sacred and the Secular: Same-sex marriage; Getting the Last Laugh on Rhodes; X. Are the beautiful people born?; United in Diversity; Are the Beautiful People Born?; Cases Cited; Sources.

Sachs displays an acute awareness of the potency of history, reflecting on archives and their shortcomings, and the promotion of national unity through the teaching of a common past. Similarly engrossing are his reflections on the symbolic conversion of a former prison complex into the Constitutional Court, and attempts to address the spatial geography of apartheid. - Nick Branson is Senior Researcher at Africa Research Institute and a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London.