Ian Farlam SC is a retired South African judge, who chaired the commission of inquiry into the 2012 Marikana massacre.

Early life and education

Farlam was born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and obtained his

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

in 1961. In that year he was also the clerk of Judge Martin Theron.

Career

He became a prosecutor and worked at the attorney general's office from 1964 until 1968, first in

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

and then in Cape Town. He joined the Cape

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1968 and was awarded Senior Counsel status at the end of 1981. During 1988, Farlam acted for the first time as a judge in the Orange Free State Provincial Division of the High Court and on 1 October 1993, he was appointed judge of the

Cape Provincial Division The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the ...

of the High Court. In 2000 he was appointed as a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal, a position he held until his retirement in 2009.

Post-retirement

From late 2012, Farlam chaired the commission of inquiry into the Marikana massacre.

References

1939 births Living people South African judges People from Cape Town South African Senior Counsel Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa) {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub