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109 S. African L.J. 595 (1992)
The Law Teacher, the Law Student and Legal Education in South Africa

handle is hein.journals/soaf109 and id is 605 raw text is: THE LAW TEACHER, THE LAW STUDENT AND LEGAL EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA* C R M DLAMINIt Registrar (Academic) University of Zululand; formerly Professor of Law, University of Zululand Legal education can be approached from various angles. It can be approached from that of curriculum design and curriculum content, of the method of teaching, or of theoretical versus practical training. In this presentation I shall attempt to touch upon some of these aspects, with particular reference to disadvantaged students. By disadvantaged students I suppose we mean black students who have been the casualties of Bantu education or the education system provided by the Department of Education and Training. When I pondered upon this subject, I realized that I might be opening up a can of worms. But the main purpose is to address some of the issues so that our legal education can satisfy the needs of all our students, the legal profession and society in general, in particular in a New South Africa. The title of my address is 'The Law Teacher, the Law Student and Legal Education in South Africa'. These three entities constitute the three angles of a triangle. The law teacher is in particular the key figure in this triangle. He is the apex of the triangle. He must decide on the curriculum design and curriculum content, and he must decide on the most effective method of transmitting legal knowledge to the student. Consequently he is a link between the law student and legal education. In determining curriculum content there must be a basic premiss from which a law teacher operates. There is no doubt that the law teacher must know his or her subject and know how to transmit the knowledge. The problem with us as law teachers, however, is that we are not professionally trained to teach. We use a trial-and-error method or use some method we saw being used by one of our * Paper delivered at the Legal Education mini-conference of the Conference of the Society of University Teachers of Law on 9 July 1991 at the University of Pretoria. Small portions have been omitted. Professor Dlamini had been elected President of the Society the previous year, but his appointment during the period of his office as Registrar (Academic) of his university resulted in his ceasing to be President, for he was no longer a full-time teacher of law at a university, as required by the Constitution of the Society. His address was in appreciation of the honour that had been extended to him by his election as President. t SC BProc LLM LLD (UZ) LLD (Pret).

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