In the global pantheon of ‘towering judges’, Hugh Kennedy, the first chief justice of independent Ireland, is often overlooked. But Kennedy played a profound role in shaping the Irish constitutional order and was a central architect of the 1922 Constitution produced for the new Irish Free State, ensuring its maximal autonomy. He established a new court system to replace the highly politicised judiciary of the imperial era. He proved to be an intellectual powerhouse, delivering judgments suffused with historical and comparative legal knowledge, and working to craft a new and genuinely democratic jurisprudence. He was the Court’s backbone of principle, most notably asserting in 1934 (in a blistering dissent) the power to substantively review constitutional amendments. His defence of rights and the rule of law set the scene for the dramatic expansion of the Supreme Court’s power in the 1960s and 1970s, and lingers still. More profoundly, Kennedy set the scene for Ireland’s trajectory towards declaration of a fully independent republic in 1948. While leaving a somewhat contested legacy, he deserves global recognition.

Arthur Chaskalson was appointed by President Nelson Mandela in 1994 as the first head of the newly created Constitutional Court of South Africa. As a consequence of his distinguished record as a leading human rights practitioner during the dark days of apartheid, he brought both moral and intellectual stature to the leadership of the new apex Court. During the decade of his leadership, the Court fashioned a coherent body of jurisprudence that gave meaningful content to a constitutional text that was passed into law in 1996. He was the social leader of the Court, ensuring that it became a cohesive and efficient institution for the vindication of constitutional rights. At the same time, from its inception, he was the intellectual leader of the Court. This was first evident in his judgment in S v Makwanyane (1995) in which he developed a new legal paradigm for constitutional adjudication in a decision that declared the death penalty to be unconstitutional.