Legal educators – the peddler of precedent, the skill builder and the socially conscious knowledge generator
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Date
2014
Authors
Bezuidenhout, Inez
Karels, Michelle
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The time is rife to encourage law teachers to evaluate their individual subjective
views of the law before embarking on another study of best-suited methodologies
for modular teaching. This article does not aim to entertain the various methodologies
of legal education in order to determine a best-fit or fit-for-purpose standard of legal
teaching. It rather examines the epistemological importance of the law teacher’s
intrinsic view of law, and its translation in legal education, thereby recognising the
continuous transformation of exploratory educational discourse. The article purports
that the personal views of law held by a law teacher are expressed in the way law is
interpreted and articulated to students. In illustration of the above premise, we refer
to three general types of law teacher. The first type honours the positive law, thereby
preserving the recognition of contextualised doctrinal institutions of the law. The
second, and most sought after in the contemporary context, prizes applied skill as a
commodity necessary for practice. The third type augments teaching philosophy with
social responsibility and therein the pursuit of good justice. We conclude that all three
types have advantages and challenges. However, South Africa, as a plural society,
requires law teachers who acknowledge that law has a social mandate and that the
knowledge they instil must be fused with social consciousness in order for students
to contribute to both society and the development of law as a professional discipline.
Description
Keywords
Legal education, Law teachers
Citation
Bezuidenhout, I., & Karels, M. (2014). Legal educators-the peddler of precedent, the skill builder and the socially conscious knowledge generator. Acta Academica: Law as a humanities discipline: transformative potential and political limits, 46(3), 40-51.