Developing Critical Citizenship in LLB Students: The Role of a Decolonised Legal History Course

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Citation: (2020) 26(2) Fundamina 337
• Author: Mitchell, L.
• Pages: 337-363
• Date: 17 March 2021
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v26/i2a3
• Published date: 17 March 2021

337

https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v26/i2a3

DEVELOPING CRITICAL

CITIZENSHIP IN LLB STUDENTS:

THE ROLE OF A DECOLONISED

LEGAL HISTORY COURSE

Lize-Mari Mitchell*

ABSTRACT

Within the neoliberal ideals of society, social science subjects are

battling for their rightful place in curriculums. As a result, legal history

courses are being presented by increasingly less universities in South

Africa. In the tendency towards a skills-based LLB, higher education

institutions are neglecting to acknowledge the immense impact

students’ ideologies and critical thinking will have on the future of

South Africa. This contribution argues that it is not only possible to

deliver competitive graduates, to retain social subjects and to heed

the call for decolonisation, but that a transformative, decolonised legal

history course is vital to these ideals. The contribution explores the

role of such a course in the development of LLB graduates where it

strives towards constitutional ideals and social justice. Furthermore, it

takes a look at legal history as a form of critical citizenship education,

where it is based on the holistic development of students within

constant critical self-reection and the promotion of a common set of

shared values. The development of critical citizenship in students are

* Lecturer, University of Limpopo. E-mail: lizemari.mitchell@ul.ac.za

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LIZE-MARI MITCHELL

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https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v26/i2a3

explored by dening this concept, as well as by discussing the manner

in which it can be taught and the importance to the so-called born-free

LLB student. This study concludes with broad outlines of the manner

in which a legal history course would have to be presented within a

critical pedagogy to achieve the aims of critical citizenship.

Keywords: Critical citizenship; critical pedagogy; legal history; decoloni-

sation; LLB review; transformation

1 Introduction

If we are serious about societal change grounded in law in South Africa,

law teachers must consciously assume their role in the transformative

project. We must acknowledge that the way we go about teaching law

will shape the next generation’s perception of law and its role in this

country ... . Seventeen years into our democracy, I think that it is high

time that we as law teachers start to ask critically what we are doing

in our classes to further the cause of the Constitution’s “enterprise

of inducing large-scale social change through nonviolent political

processes grounded in law” towards a “society based on democratic

values, social justice and fundamental human rights”.1

The legal system in South Africa has a diverse and infamous history;

calls for the decolonisation and transformation of the profession and

its training are persistently made. To heed this call, legal education

in South Africa has undergone two major transformations. The rst

was a result of governmental requirements in the late nineties;2 the

second was in 2015 with the #feesmustfall and #rhodesmustfall

student protests,3 which especially demanded the decolonisation of

higher education curricula and for a break from the legal system’s

Eurocentric heritage and epistemological viewpoints4 towards

plurality of legal knowledge. Since 2015, in an ongoing attempt to

address the quality framework and transformation requirements,

various universities in South Africa temporarily lost and regained

1 Quinot 2015: 432.

2 This was the result of the following: the establishment of the South African

Qualications Act 58 of 1995 (SAQA) and of a National Qualications

Framework (NQF) in 1995; the 1997 White Paper: A Programme for Higher

Education Transformation (see Department of Education 1997); and the later

promulgation of the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997. See, also, Greenbaum

2010: 1–27; Nicholson 2011: 101–114.

3 Geduld 2019: 1–7.

4 For a summary of the decolonisation debate, see ibid.

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