Alan Christopher Dodson SC (born 10 July 1960) is a South African lawyer who was a judge of the Land Claims Court from 1995 to 2000.
[1] During the 1980s, Dodson was conscripted to the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, and he was court-martialled for refusing to participate in patrols of black townships.
[2][4] In 1995, he left practice to accept appointment as a judge in the Land Claims Court, serving a five-year term which ended in 2000.
[7][8] Alongside his own practice at the bar, Dodson was the chairperson of the United Nations's Housing and Property Claims Commission in Kosovo between 2000 and 2007, and he was director of litigation at the Legal Resources Centre between 2004 and 2006.
[5] In February 2021, the Judicial Service Commission announced that Dodson was one of ten candidates who had been shortlisted for possible appointment to one of two permanent vacancies in the Constitutional Court.
[6][11] Although his interview proceeded smoothly, Dodson was among the three candidates whom the Judicial Service Commission did not recommend for appointment, the others being Dhaya Pillay and David Unterhalter.
[14] That interview traversed many of the same topics, including Dodson's sparse judicial record and his race,[15][16] which Mpofu referred to as "the elephant in the room".
[16][19] His exclusion, and that of Unterhalter, led to widespread public debate about affirmative action in the judiciary,[20][21][22] with many commentators presuming that, given their legal experience and reputations, Dodson and Ulterhalter had been overlooked because they were white men.
[1][29] After the interviews, the Judicial Service Commission recommended Dodson and three other candidates – Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane, Owen Rogers, and Mahube Molemela – as suitable for appointment.
[31] Because only four candidates were submitted for presidential consideration, only one of the two vacancies could be filled, and, in June 2022, President Ramaphosa announced that he had elected to appoint Rogers.