Johann Kriegler

Johann Christiaan Kriegler (born 29 November 1932) is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 1995 to November 2002. Formerly a practising silk in Johannesburg, he joined the bench as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division in 1984. He was also the first chairperson of the post-apartheid Independent Electoral Commission and Electoral Commission of South Africa.

An Afrikaner from Pretoria, Kriegler was called to the Johannesburg Bar as an advocate in 1959 and took silk in 1972. In addition to his trial advocacy, he gained prominence for his involvement in human rights law, particularly as founding chairperson of Lawyers for Human Rights from 1981. Upon gaining judicial appointment, he served in the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1984 to 1995, first in the Transvaal Division and then, from 1993, in the Appellate Division. President Nelson Mandela elevated him to the inaugural bench of the Constitutional Court upon the court's inception, and he served in the apex court until his retirement in November 2002.

While a sitting judge, Kriegler was appointed to chair the Electoral Commission in December 1993, and he oversaw both the administration of the first post-apartheid election in April 1994 and the commission's own establishment as a permanent institution. Both before and after his retirement, he was active in international engagements on electoral disputes and judicial independence, notably as chairperson of Kenya's Kriegler Commission in 2008. In addition, from 2008 to 2023, he was the founding chairperson of Freedom Under Law, a prominent non-profit organisation which aims to promote the rule of law in South Africa.