Background
Fayt was born in Salta but at a young age moved to Buenos Aires.
Fayt was born in Salta but at a young age moved to Buenos Aires.
He graduated as a lawyer in 1941 from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
He played an active role in trade union life, heading the Buenos Aires Lawyers" Association 1963-1965, and had an extensive academic career. Fayt taught at UBA and at the National University of Louisiana Plata, specialising in political law. He is now Emeritus Professor at UBA and teaches at Belgrano University.
A supporter of Nicolás Repetto and Alfredo Palacios, he later became part of the faction of Carlos Sánchez Viamonte.
After splits in the Socialist Party, however, he dedicated himself to civic and academic life. Fayt was appointed to the Supreme Court by the new democratic government of President Raúl Alfonsín in 1983, despite never having served as a judge.
In the 1990s, when President Carlos Menem had increased the size of the Court and appointed several sympathetic Justices, Fayt was one of those who generally opposed the majority view. Fayt is the longest serving Supreme Court Justice in Argentina ever.
He had previously been approached by President Arturo Illia in the 1960s to join the Supreme Court, but had turned the role down on that occasion.
From July 2003 he presided over the court for some months. In 2008 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Institutions - Community - Enterprise as the most important community personality in the last decade in his country. On September 15, 2015, Fayt submitted his resignation from the Supreme Court.
The resignation will take effect on December 11, the day after the end of the Presidential administration.
He was also an active socialist and stood to be governor of Salta Province in 1958. Three of his 35 books are on the subject of Peronism.