Hold onto critical jurisprudence

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to reflect tentatively on the importance of a continuing critical jurisprudence. By thinking about the lives and legacies of the late Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and his second wife, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, I want to reconsider a specific kind of critical jurisprudence, with particular attention to the issue of constitutionalism. I argue for a critical jurisprudence that responds to the many complexities that South African society faces , with nuance - not broad strokes and generalizations ; with care, neither aggressive nor defensive; and with thought, not strategic or calculated. I am of the view that this third position also has an important, albeit minor, place in legal scholarship and legal education and most pertinently in the LLB curriculum.