Legal Philosophy 341: 2020
Table of Contents
THEME 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................ 3
(A) WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?.....................................................................................................................................................................3
(B) WHAT IS LEGAL PHILOSOPHY?............................................................................................................................................................3
(C) WHY STUDY LEGAL PHILOSOPHY?........................................................................................................................................................3
1 Philosophy’s historical influence...............................................................................................................................................3
2 Leadership in the face of change..............................................................................................................................................4
3 Improving lawyering and argumentative skills: Arguing cases................................................................................................4
4 Imagining alternative social worlds..........................................................................................................................................6
THEME 2: LAW, JUSTICE & MORALITY...................................................................................................................................... 7
(A) NATURAL LAW.................................................................................................................................................................................8
1 Distinction between positive law & higher law.........................................................................................................................9
2 Shift from nature as source of higher law to a disenchanted view of nature.........................................................................10
3 Shift from natural law to natural rights..................................................................................................................................12
(B) LEGAL POSITIVISM..........................................................................................................................................................................15
1 Law as command....................................................................................................................................................................16
2 Law as a social fact.................................................................................................................................................................16
3 Separation of law & morals....................................................................................................................................................17
(C) LAW AS INTEGRITY: RONALD DWORKIN (1931-2013).........................................................................................................................23
1 Background.............................................................................................................................................................................23
2 Critique of legal positivism, HLA Hart & natural law..............................................................................................................24
3 Idea of law as integrity............................................................................................................................................................25
4 Critical questions.....................................................................................................................................................................29
THEME 3: LEGAL REASONING & THE POLITICS OF LAW........................................................................................................... 33
(A) LEGAL REALISM..............................................................................................................................................................................34
1 Progressive & realist critiques of legal formalism...................................................................................................................34
2 Move towards a social-scientific approach.............................................................................................................................38
3 Purpose and function of legal realism.....................................................................................................................................39
4 Critical legal realism in South Africa.......................................................................................................................................40
(B) CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES..................................................................................................................................................................40
1 Background & influences to CLS..............................................................................................................................................40
2.1 The internal critique.............................................................................................................................................................41
2.2 External critique...................................................................................................................................................................45
2.3 Alternative vision of politics.................................................................................................................................................47
THEME 4: SEX, GENDER & SEXUAL ORIENTATION................................................................................................................... 54
(A) SEX, GENDER & FEMINISM..............................................................................................................................................................54
Part 1: Law and the female........................................................................................................................................................54
Part 2: Gender & Violence..........................................................................................................................................................62
(B) SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER IDENTITY........................................................................................................................................66
Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................66
S v Kola 1966 4 SA 322 (A).........................................................................................................................................................66
Essentialism vs constructionism.................................................................................................................................................68
THEME 5: RACE, DECOLONISATION & AFRICAN JURISPRUDENCE............................................................................................ 71
(A) RACE & THE LAW: CRITICAL RACE THEORY.........................................................................................................................................71
1
, 1 A non-racial society.................................................................................................................................................................71
2 Critical race theory..................................................................................................................................................................74
3 Conceptions of race & racial justice........................................................................................................................................77
(B) DECOLONISATION & AFRICAN JURISPRUDENCE....................................................................................................................................80
1 Colonialism & conquest...........................................................................................................................................................81
2 Colonial legacy today & the Constitution................................................................................................................................82
3 Rethinking knowledge, the university & non-racialism..........................................................................................................83
THEME 6, PART 1: SOCIAL CLASS............................................................................................................................................ 86
(A) RECAP & INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................................86
(B) SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS.................................................................................................................................................................86
(C) IDENTITY-BASED DISCRIMINATION......................................................................................................................................................86
(D) CLASS-BASED ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION.............................................................................................................................................87
(E) INTERSECTIONS..............................................................................................................................................................................89
THEME 6, PART 2: (RE)DISTRIBUTION..................................................................................................................................... 90
(A) LAW & REDISTRIBUTION..................................................................................................................................................................90
(B) JOHN RAWLS (1921-2002)............................................................................................................................................................92
(C) THEORIES OF JUSTICE IN AFRICA........................................................................................................................................................93
2
,Theme 1: Introduction
What is philosophy?
What is legal philosophy or jurisprudence?
Why study it? (Contexts in which these questions become pertinent)
(A) What is philosophy?
“Where am I? What does it mean to say: the world? What is the meaning of the world?
Who tricked me into this whole thing and leaves me standing here? Who am I? How did
I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it, why was I not informed of the rules
and regulations and just thrust into the ranks? How did I get involved in the big
enterprise called reality? Why should I be involved? Isn’t it a matter of choice? If I am
compelled to be involved, where is the manager? I have something to say about this. Is
there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?” Søren Kierkegaard
Philosophy tries to grapple with some of these big questions.
*When is an action or a person morally good?
(B) What is legal philosophy?
How, if at all, is law related to justice?
o What should happen when a law is found to be unjust?
What counts as a just distribution of resources? What role should law play in
bringing about a just distribution?
When and why must legal rules be obeyed?
Is law neutral & objective?
How does law deal with differences based on race, sex, gender, sexual
orientation, economic class, etc.?
How ought law to deal with these differences?
What are the basic assumptions underlying the theory and practice of law?
(C) Why study legal philosophy?
1. Philosophy’s historical influence
2. Leadership in the face of change
3. Improving lawyering and argumentative skills
4. Imagining alternative social worlds
1 Philosophy’s historical influence
Legal concepts, assumptions underlying our thinking about the law & legal principles
have historically been shaped/ influenced by philosophers & legal philosophers
o When we encounter a legal concept such as rights, subject, property, contract,
we don’t think about it as a philosophical concept due to the fact that we have a
working definition of it, we have case law dealing with it, we have handbooks
o We deal with it in a sensical, common sense, sort of manner
o Many of these concepts became part of the way we think & the way we talk
about the law, as a result of the work of legal thinkers & philosophers
Richard Tuck’s Natural Rights Theories, in which he shows the origins of the concept of
right & subjective right.
o He shows how these concepts developed out of very obscure, medieval &
theological debates
o Debate about whether a monk should be allowed to own property, even if it is
just the clothes he is wearing.
3
, Today, law still reflects these influences, although we are seldom aware of them
Revisit philosophical debates
Recognise that law was created by humans, in response to particular needs and
circumstances
Critically re-examine our assumptions, adapt them to changing circumstances
2 Leadership in the face of change
Technological advances & their implications for legal profession
o People are talking about the 4th industrial revolution
Global warming, pandemics, refugees and displaced persons, poverty and
unemployment
We live in a society that is changing rapidly!
3 Improving lawyering and argumentative skills: Arguing cases
Vagueness and ambiguity
o H.L.A. Hart (British Legal Philosopher): Legal rules have a penumbra (peripheral
area) of uncertainty. Even though he was a legal positivist, he was quite honest
in recognizing that legal rules often have an area of uncertainty. He says, in
those areas we need legal philosophy, we need to have recourse to values &
policy considerations etc.
Conflicts
o Between different legal rules, values and principles
o Between different fields of law, e.g. labour law and administrative law, or
between common law and customary law
o Between overlapping legal systems, e.g. international and national law, or EU law
and national law
Examples of conflict
o Case between Mrs Tumane, Bgakgatla-Ba-Kgafela Tribal Authority and SA Human
Rights Commission (“burial rights case”)
As discussed by J Comaroff and J Comaroff “Reflections on liberalism,
policulturalism, and ID-ology: citizenship and difference in South Africa”
2003 Social Identities 445
South African anthropologists working in the US.
Mrs. Tumane, widow living in a village in the North West.
There was a convention in Tshwane law that when a widow has lost a
husband, she must for a certain period (1 year) sprinkle a herb in order to
prevent the spreading of death.
It is a serious cultural belief/ ritual
Mrs. Tumane is Jehovah’s witness & she refused to do this. She said it
went against her religious beliefs.
This created great conflict in the community.
Clear from the case that this practice is controversial because it is seen by
many people in the community as central to life in the community.
Alternatively, there are people in the community that believe it goes
against rights & gender discrimination – violating the equal citizenship of
women
Chief of the community called a meeting of the tribal authority, & the
tribal authority resolved that Mrs. Tumane should be banished from the
village.
The South African Human Rights Commission along with Mrs. Tumane,
approaches the High Court & the court issues a provisional order (decree
4
