‘Please Think Critically’: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis of Curriculum Delivery of Law Degrees

Abstract

This paper aims to perform an analysis of pedagogy and theory of the law degree. Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching. The paper proposes that law education may accommodate a pedagogy of the development of ‘alternative critical scholarship’ in relation to law students. It employs the phrase ‘Please think critically’ because it is common in the history of legal education that the most successful scholars, and litigators all lived by the mantra: ‘please think critically’. It does not argue that a critical law student must be trained to be disruptive without cause, but that our methodology in curriculum delivery must encourage the law student to de/construct legal doctrine or concepts. This exercise may be accommodated as an alternative model for legal research. Thus, this paper contributes knowledge to critical legal research methodology. The research problem in this paper hinges on the fact that law students learn the skills of litigation (or problem-solving in the legal context) from learning by rote legal principles that are trite. They often do not learn the skills to perform a historical, theoretical and philosophical or doctrinal analysis of a/the law. This paper argues that to address this problem, they may be encouraged to learn about the epistemology, ontology, morality, philosophy of history and African philosophy. This will arm them with the tools to approach the established legal principles with an ability to re/think, re/imagine, and/or re/de/construct the law. This type of study may, wholly or in part, be dependent on research from other disciplines. The development of this critical law student is dependent on the manner they are taught, assessed and developed in and out of the classroom. To encourage critical thinking, the student may be assessed on their ability to critique established legal instruments: the legal doctrine, nature of the law, new and proposed legislation, new case law and judges’ legal interpretations. The critical analyses and thoughts on alternative theories like decolonial schools of thought and African jurisprudence may be reflected in their dissertation.