Incorporating Afrocentric alternative dispute resolution in South Africa’s clinical legal education

Abstract

Since its inception, South African clinical legal education has remained steeped in the promotion of the Western adversarial model of resolving legal disputes with minimal consideration for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This dearth in legal development has ignited the argument that South African legal education is faulty, focusing on producing theory orientated graduates devoid of practical critical thinking skills and client empathy. Decolonising the manner in which law students are taught for practice to assuage these concerns through clinical legal education is overdue. This article explores the utility of ADR systems in the legal clinic as an instrument for skills transfer to students in order to prepare a competent and skilled law graduate. It argues that the introduction of ADR undergirded by African epistemic norms and the philosophy of ubuntu has the potential to re-make South African clinical education into an Afrocentric centred phenomenon, which is in harmony with societal boni mores.