Michael Corbett

Michael McGregor Corbett (14 September 1923 to 16 September 2007) was a South African judge who served as the sixteenth Chief Justice of South Africa from 1989 to 1996. He served in the South African Navy during the Second World War, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander, before studying law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he earned a first class law degree in 1948. He was appointed a Chamber Judge in 1965 and a Judge of Appeal in 1974, contributing significantly to South African jurisprudence in maritime and testamentary law, and as Chief Justice he delivered the opening speech at the inaugural Convention for a Democratic South Africa session in December 1991, launching the constitutional negotiations for a new South African order.