Matthew Chaskalson

Matthew Chaskalson SC (born 12 August 1963) is a South African lawyer and jurist who is best known for his work in constitutional litigation. He has frequently appeared in the Constitutional Court of South Africa and led evidence at both the Marikana Commission and the State Capture Commission. The son of Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, he was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court for two terms in 2023 and 2024.

Early life and education Chaskalson was born on 12 August 1963. He was the eldest of two sons born to Arthur Chaskalson, who was a prominent anti-apartheid lawyer and who later served as Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. He attended King David School in Linksfield, Johannesburg, where he matriculated in 1980. Thereafter he attended the University of the Witwatersrand, completing a BA in 1984, Honours in 1985, and an LLB in 1990, all cum laude. In 1992, he returned to his alma mater, initially as a lecturer in delict and constitutional law and then, from 1995 to 2000, as head of the constitutional law project at the university's Centre for Applied Legal Studies.

Chaskalson was prolific in litigation in the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court of South Africa; indeed, for several years, he frequently argued cases in front of his father's bench. He attained additional public prominence as a member of the staffs of two high-profile commissions of inquiry: he led evidence at the Marikana Commission from 2012 to 2014, where he worked alongside Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Geoff Budlender, and later at the State Capture Commission from 2019 to 2021, where he led the questioning of Deputy Minister Zizi Kodwa. and (as senior counsel) Corruption Watch in Corruption Watch v President. Conversely, he appeared in an important series of cases on discrimination in family law, both relating to gender discrimination (as in Bhe v Magistrate, Khayelitsha, Daniels v Campbell, and Fraser v Children's Court) and to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (as in Du Toit v Minister of Welfare and Population Development, Gory v Kolver, and National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice).

During this acting service, but before he had issued any judgment from the bench, The other candidates were Tati Makgoka, Ashton Schippers, Alan Dodson, and David Bilchitz. However, shortly before the candidates were interviewed in April 2024, Chaskalson withdrew from the contest due to injuries he had sustained in a cycling accident.

Scholarship Chaskalson edited the first and second editions of Constitutional Law of South Africa, a constitutional law textbook which the Mail & Guardian called the field's "bible", He has also written several influential articles in constitutional law; among other things, his work on property rights was cited by the Constitutional Court in FNB v Commissioner for SARS, the locus classicus on the South African property clause.''' He is married and has three children.