Where are the now

Raymond Wacks 

Emeritus Professor Raymond Wacks (BA 1968, LLB 1969) took early retirement in 2001 from an illustrious legal career to focus on writing and tending his olive farm in the Tuscan hills. 

Accompanied by his wife and a menagerie including a goose, a Shetland pony, three hens and a dog, Wacks has since published a series of legal titles. These include Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction (2006) – which was translated into Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Georgian – followed by Law: A Very Short Introduction (2008) and Privacy: A Very Short Introduction (2010).

A prolific academic author, Wacks most recently also published his first novel, White Lies,  set in South Africa in the 1960s. As a Witsie during this era, Wacks was President of the Law Students’ Council and a SRC executive committee member. He won the HJ Hofmeyr and University Council scholarships, which enabled further study at the London School of Economics and at Oxford University. 

Wacks taught law in Oxford from 1974 to 1981 and then took up the post of Professor of Public Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

His legal career continued with distinction as Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong (1984 to 2001), at which he was Head of Department from 1986 until 1993. During this time, he met former South African President, Nelson Mandela. Wacks writes of “the unforgettable moment” he met Madiba: 

“I was a member of a small anti-apartheid group in Hong Kong. We got wind of the fact that Madiba was on his way to Japan on what was one of his very first trips abroad after his release. We learnt that he would make a brief stop in Hong Kong. So, following a great deal of negotiation with the authorities, four of us were permitted to enter the VIP lounge of Kai Tak airport. We spent about an hour with the great man, who was accompanied by Pallo Jordan.” 

“Three things struck me about Madiba,” recalls Wacks. “First, his genuine interest in us and our work in Hong Kong, the impending question of Hong Kong’s ‘return’ to China, and the provenance of one of our members who had an Afrikaans surname… [also] his utter lack of ego, and… the unexpected softness of his hands.” 

Prior to his retirement to Italy, Wacks edited the Hong Kong Law Journal for several years and presented the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) programme, The Week in Politics. He was formerly Chairman of the Committee of the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong on privacy.