Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
LECTURER: Ms HJ KEEP
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
The purpose of the course is to give the students a basic grounding in the central themes
of legal philosophy. This will involve examining the major schools of jurisprudence, and
introducing the students to the core legal debates that have preoccupied legal
philosophers from the early days of civilization to modern times. The course will also focus
on how these debates have impacted, and continue to impact, on the legal system in
South Africa. The course is designed to serve certain generic purposes: to stimulate
critical thought and debate about law as a social and political entity, and to provide a
philosophical basis from which the students may better understand the rationales behind
the existence, structure and content of the “black-letter” laws that are studied in other legal
courses. The course should also give the students an opportunity to think carefully about
the values that ought to underpin a country’s legal system, and in particular to see how
certain philosophical approaches to law have shaped the way our South African society
and its legal system has arranged itself, both in the present and the past.
9 Credits.
• B
e capable of writing and communicating in coherent English.
• K now how and where to access resources such as textbooks, law reports and
statutes in the Law Library.
• B e capable of independent learning.
• Read, analyse and extract principles from textbooks and other source material.
• Have a working knowledge of legal referencing conventions, and to be able to
apply these to their written work.
2. OUTCOMES
The Jurisprudence course is designed so that students successfully completing this course
should be able to achieve the following outcomes:
(a) To understand, explain and critically analyse classical natural law theory.
(b) To understand, explain and critically analyse the theory of legal positivism.
(c) To understand, explain and critically analyse the re-birth of natural law theory in
its 20th century form.
(d) To understand, explain and critically analyse the debates about the process of
legal adjudication, particularly as far as the judiciary is concerned.
(e) To understand, explain and critically analyse the record and role of the South
African judiciary in the 20th and 21st centuries.
(f) To apply the knowledge gained during the course to discussions about issues of
contemporary legal interest in society.
3. TEACHING METHODS
The course will be presented by means of viva voce lectures with PowerPoint
presentations where such presentation will enhance discussions in class. There is no
comprehensive handout for the course, and students will be expected to take their own
notes during class. A reading list with synopses of each topic as well as a course schedule
will be given to students as an aid to study. In lectures, only a broad explanatory overview
of leading jurisprudential theories will be given. Students will be expected to read
extensively to consolidate and develop their understanding of the topics that are covered
in the course. Students will also be expected to debate the merits of the various
jurisprudential issues in class. Students are expected to assume responsibility for their
learning by reading ahead before each lecture and consolidating afterwards.
Requirements for attendance at lectures are set out in the Law Students Survival Guide.
There are no tutorials in this course. However, (voluntary) discussion groups will be
arranged towards the end of the semester regarding specific problem areas.
4. COURSE CONTENT
The debate on the record and role of the South African judiciary
5. RESOURCES
Students will be expected to expand upon the material discussed in lectures by
reading relevant passages from some of the leading general texts on
Jurisprudence. Recommended texts are:
MDA Freeman Lloyd's Introduction to Jurisprudence (7th ed; Sweet and Maxwell,
2001)
Hugh Corder (ed) Law and Social Practice in South Africa (Juta, 1988)
Students are strongly advised to utilise these resources in the course of their studies.
Students are also encouraged to browse through the shelves in the library, and familiarise
themselves with the Faculty’s holdings. This will stand them in good stead when research
is undertaken for assignments. Students are also encouraged to use the electronic
resources of the library, especially when accessing law journal articles.
6. STUDENT ASSESSMENT
6. STUDENT ASSESSMENT
Assessment Strategy
The final mark for the course is comprised of the following components:
Assignments
There are two major assignments in this course, which are submitted towards the end of
the third and fourth terms respectively. In these assignments, students will be expected to
discuss a particular jurisprudential issue, and relate the theory to a contemporary issue of
interest to society. The assignments should be approximately 3000 words in length, and
will have to be thoroughly researched, and correctly referenced and presented. Each
assignment counts 50% of the class-mark component of the course. The assignments are
compulsory.
Examination
One two-hour paper will be written in November. The examination will be out of 75 marks.
There will be five 25-mark questions on the paper, of which the student will have to choose
three to answer. The mark out of 75 will be reduced to a mark out of 70 for the purposes of
calculating the final percentage total for the course. The questions will generally require
students to be able to explain the nature and content of the theories about law that were
examined in the course. The examination is compulsory. An external examiner assesses
the quality of both the examination paper and the students' answers.
7. EVALUATION
This course is evaluated as part of the global evaluation of LLB courses conducted at the
end of each semester.
6
7