Brushes With The Law By Marius Diemont
Brushes With The Law By Marius Diemont (Collectible First Edition Copy)
The Compelling Memoirs of a Supreme Court Justice Balancing Judicial Conscience and Mercy in Apartheid South Africa
The Compelling Memoirs of a Supreme Court Justice Balancing Judicial Conscience and Mercy in Apartheid South Africa
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Brushes With The Law
- Author: Marius Diemont (Justice Marius Annè Diemont)
- Publisher: Human & Rousseau Ltd, Cape Town
- Publication Date: 1995
- ISBN-10: 0798134577
- ISBN-13: 9780798134576
- Edition Details: First Edition, Standard Hardcover Release (Collectible Copy)
- Binding: Original publisher's premium cloth boards, complete with the original illustrated dust jacket, safely housed inside a protective clear Cellophane archival sleeve.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 320 pages. Enhanced with historical legal references, personal case recollections, and primary biographical documentation.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Boards: The publisher's cloth casing remains exceptionally strong, flat, and square-cornered. The spine text is perfectly crisp, bright, and completely undamaged at the head and tail bands.
- Interior: The text block is structurally tight, secure, and resiliently bound. Internal pages are completely clean, crisp, and intact. Free from kitchen or library ink stamps, owner labels, or dealer pencil annotations. Note: The pages show uniform, light vintage tanning/browning across the text leaf margins, entirely typical of mid-1990s South African paper stocks.
- Preservation: This volume has been meticulously looked after, carefully maintained, and is now preserved inside a clear Cellophane wrap to shield the binding from future edge wear.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Condition: Present, complete, and unclipped. Displays very limited, minor signs of storage wear and light surface rubbing along the perimeter borders. Beautifully stabilized, clean, and seamlessly showcased beneath the protective archival Cellophane cover.
Synopsis & Juridical Value
Published in 1995, Brushes With The Law is the captivating, inside biographical story of Supreme Court Justice Marius Diemont, charting a legal career that spanned more than three decades at the height of South Africa’s socio-political revolution. Diemont provides an honest look at the immense moral dilemma faced by South African judges when Parliament codified racial apartheid onto the Statute Book: whether to resign in protest or stay on the Bench to actively temper strict legislative decrees with human justice and mercy.
Growing up in the Karoo town of Oudtshoorn, Diemont’s journey tracks from his days as a student leader at the University of Cape Town to early struggles at the Cape Bar. He recounts high-stakes conflicts with the illicit diamond trade in Kimberley, heading the critical official inquiry into the Langa Riots, navigating the hostility of Minister of Justice Frans Erasmus, and presiding over high-profile security trials and the infamous "Scissors Murder" case. Crucially, the memoir details his 1977 judicial mission to Robben Island to negotiate directly with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and political prisoners. Written with deep compassion, rich historical insight, and subtle humour, this work provides a rare legal viewpoint on a country in transformation.
Author Profile: Marius Diemont
Justice Marius Annè Diemont (1912–2001) was a highly distinguished South African jurist, author, and legal scholar who ascended to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (now the Supreme Court of Appeal). He read law under the legendary Professor George Wille at the University of Cape Town, where he also served as President of the Students' Representative Council (SRC). A man of vast humanitarian interests, intellectual integrity, and deep legal refinement, Diemont authored authoritative, bestselling Roman-Dutch law text books during his decades at the Cape Bar before embarking on his long, historic tenure on the Supreme Court bench.
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