David Bilchitz

David Israel Bilchitz (born 9 September 1975) is a South African legal academic known for his work in constitutional law and human rights law. He is Professor of Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Johannesburg, where he has led the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law since 2009. He is also a professor of law at the University of Reading. He was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2024.

Early life and education Bilchitz was born on 9 September 1975 in Johannesburg. He attended King David School in Linksfield, Johannesburg, where he matriculated in 1993. Raised in a family that was opposed to apartheid, he later said that his social consciousness was shaped by the recognition of "a moral responsibility to make a contribution to undoing its legacy".

In 1994, he enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he completed a BA in 1996, Honours in 1997, and an LLB in 1999.

Academic career From September to November 2004, Bilchitz was a legal consultant at Ashira Consulting in Johannesburg. In 2022 he was shortlisted for possible appointment as the African representative to the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

Constitutional Court In October 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Bilchitz had been appointed to serve as an acting judge of the Constitutional Court between 1 February and 31 March 2024. Two years earlier, Bilchitz himself had argued publicly that academics should be directly appointed to the court in this fashion. During his service in the court, he dissented from the majority's order of dismissal in Rivonia Circle v President of SA.

Meanwhile, Bilchitz became one of five candidates shortlisted for possible permanent appointment to the Constitutional Court, the others being Matthew Chaskalson, Alan Dodson, Tati Makgoka, and Ashton Schippers. He was the first legal academic to be shortlisted in several years, and Judges Matter suggested that his limited experience – both as a judge and as a practising lawyer – might disadvantage him. members of the Judicial Service Commission likewise pressed Bilchitz on his inexperience, until Chief Justice Raymond Zondo intervened to point out that Bilchitz had been "minding [his] own business" in academia until Zondo asked him to accept the acting appointment. After the interviews, the Judicial Service Commission announced that it would not make a recommendation and instead would opt to re-advertise the vacancies.

Personal life A practicing Jew, and he was formerly the chairperson of Jewish OutLook: SA Jewish LGBTI Alliance. His husband is British–Israeli legal academic Ruvi Ziegler, whom he met at the World Congress of Constitutional Law in Seoul, Korea; they married on 16 February 2020.

In the 1990s he was invited by Reeva Forman to be the lay rabbi for the Temple Israel congregation in Hillbrow.

Honours Bilchitz was elected to the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2020, having been a member of the South African Young Academy of Science since 2015. He was one of the Mail & Guardian 's 200 Young South Africans in 2010. '''