Nobody can really afford legal services: the price of justice in Namibia
- Authors: Zongwe, Dunia P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Legal assistance to the poor , Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5375 , vital:44543 , https://perjournal.co.za/article/view/6420
- Description: Nobody (except for the privileged few) can afford legal services in Namibia. In the light of this dawning awareness, how should the government and other stakeholders design the legal profession so that the greatest number of Namibians can access legal services and, ultimately, justice while preserving the profession's financial viability? The predominantly economic nature of this question means that its solutions lie less in the field of law than in the field of economics. Thus, this article adopts a methodology that reflects that insight.As a primary purpose, this article works towards solving the high cost of legal services in Namibia. It utilises a literature-review methodology that searches the scholarship on the legal profession for practical, down-to-earth solutions put forward in other countries to take the edge off the prohibitive cost of legal services. The article mainly finds that, if structured as a compulsory salary deduction, legal insurance promises the greatest positive impact on costs. And it concludes that the optimal solutions should consist of measures aimed at heightening competition in the legal profession and measures that broaden cost-sharing in providing legal assistance to the public. The article argues that competition can be effectively increased by lubricating the flow of information about prices and services, and by having more public entities bear the burden of expanding the system of legal assistance.
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- Date Issued: 2021
T Kondo (Ed) law and investment in Africa: the fovernance of foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Zongwe, Dunia P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Investments, Foreign -- Africa, Sub-Saharan , Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions , Corporate governance
- Language: English
- Type: text , review , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6387 , vital:45443 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2077-4907/2021/ldd.v25.16 "
- Description: Tinashe Kondo’s book, Law and investment in Africa, narrates the efforts of a country to regain the trust [and the love] of foreign investors after several decades of argument and hostility. Encapsulated in the “Zimbabwe is open for business” slogan, these efforts show “how a country can move to regain credibility and commit to global rules despite its recent history”. This review of Kondo’s book concerns the manner in which readers can take advantage of this immensely useful publication. Particularly, this review looks into the book in order to advise law academics on possible strategies to integrate the book into their curricula in Zimbabwe and elsewhere on the continent.
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- Date Issued: 2021
The stories African lawyers could tell when analysing legal issues: Lessons for social sciences teachers
- Authors: Zongwe, Dunia P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Decolonization Storytelling Law--Study and teaching Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6989 , vital:52634 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v77i2.6828"
- Description: Activists and academics have clamoured for the decolonisation of knowledge, including law. But, unfortunately hardly anyone has put forth strategies for how faculties should decolonise the law. A number of jurists have underscored the necessity to draw on customary laws and traditional values. Still, the #RhodesMustFall movement has, for the most part, been loud on the outcomes, but quiet on the methodologies. Joining the conversation on the decolonisation of epistemologies, this article contributes to the ongoing efforts to sanitise the law by proposing to revive African oral storytelling cultures as a way to analyse the questions of law facing society. To live up to this task, this article adopts decolonial theory and, through stylised examples, illustrates how lawyers and social scientists in Africa can utilise storytelling to contextualise, (de)construct, and comprehend those questions. This article assumes that lawyers can use African storytelling alongside the prevailing doctrinal method. That method, relaying the coloniality of law and captured by the acronym IRAC (issue(s), rules, application, and conclusion), trains students to approach conflict in society through a highly abstract and decontextualised problem-solving model. Lately, some (Western) social scientists have (re)discovered the practicality of storytelling in presenting analysis and research. However, in African oral traditions, stories worked differently from the manner in which those scientists employ them. African storytelling played a leading role, not only in conveying collective wisdom and social memory from one generation to the next, but also as a medium through which communities transmit the values that hold them together. Contribution: This article adds to the scholarship on storytelling and narratology by showing how educators can utilise stories to analyse legal questions. That rich scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences has so far not taken seriously the possibility of using stories to analyse research problems. Instead, scholars focus on storytelling mainly as a way of presenting science, not as an analytical tool. This article bridges that gap and demonstrates the analytical value of storytelling. Keywords: decolonisation of knowledge; decolonial theory; storytelling; Africa; analysis; epistemology; legal education; oral tradition.
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- Date Issued: 2021
The stories African lawyers could tell when analysing legal issues: Lessons for social sciences teachers
- Authors: Zongwe, Dunia P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Decolonization Storytelling Law--Study and teaching Article
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/7215 , vital:53086 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v77i2.6828"
- Description: Activists and academics have clamoured for the decolonisation of knowledge, including law. But, unfortunately hardly anyone has put forth strategies for how faculties should decolonise the law. A number of jurists have underscored the necessity to draw on customary laws and traditional values. Still, the #RhodesMustFall movement has, for the most part, been loud on the outcomes, but quiet on the methodologies. Joining the conversation on the decolonisation of epistemologies, this article contributes to the ongoing efforts to sanitise the law by proposing to revive African oral storytelling cultures as a way to analyse the questions of law facing society. To live up to this task, this article adopts decolonial theory and, through stylised examples, illustrates how lawyers and social scientists in Africa can utilise storytelling to contextualise, (de)construct, and comprehend those questions. This article assumes that lawyers can use African storytelling alongside the prevailing doctrinal method. That method, relaying the coloniality of law and captured by the acronym IRAC (issue(s), rules, application, and conclusion), trains students to approach conflict in society through a highly abstract and decontextualised problem-solving model. Lately, some (Western) social scientists have (re)discovered the practicality of storytelling in presenting analysis and research. However, in African oral traditions, stories worked differently from the manner in which those scientists employ them. African storytelling played a leading role, not only in conveying collective wisdom and social memory from one generation to the next, but also as a medium through which communities transmit the values that hold them together. Contribution: This article adds to the scholarship on storytelling and narratology by showing how educators can utilise stories to analyse legal questions. That rich scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences has so far not taken seriously the possibility of using stories to analyse research problems. Instead, scholars focus on storytelling mainly as a way of presenting science, not as an analytical tool. This article bridges that gap and demonstrates the analytical value of storytelling. Keywords: decolonisation of knowledge; decolonial theory; storytelling; Africa; analysis; epistemology; legal education; oral tradition.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
The stories African lawyers could tell when analysing legal issues: Lessons for social sciences teachers
- Authors: Zongwe, Dunia P
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Africa storytelling
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/6229 , vital:45341 , https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v77i2.6828
- Description: Activists and academics have clamoured for the decolonisation of knowledge, including law. But, unfortunately hardly anyone has put forth strategies for how faculties should decolonise the law. A number of jurists have underscored the necessity to draw on customary laws and traditional values. Still, the #RhodesMustFall movement has, for the most part, been loud on the outcomes, but quiet on the methodologies. Joining the conversation on the decolonisation of epistemologies, this article contributes to the ongoing efforts to sanitise the law by proposing to revive African oral storytelling cultures as a way to analyse the questions of law facing society. To live up to this task, this article adopts decolonial theory and, through stylised examples, illustrates how lawyers and social scientists in Africa can utilise storytelling to contextualise, (de)construct, and comprehend those questions. This article assumes that lawyers can use African storytelling alongside the prevailing doctrinal method. That method, relaying the coloniality of law and captured by the acronym IRAC (issue(s), rules, application, and conclusion), trains students to approach conflict in society through a highly abstract and decontextualised problem-solving model. Lately, some (Western) social scientists have (re)discovered the practicality of storytelling in presenting analysis and research. However, in African oral traditions, stories worked differently from the manner in which those scientists employ them. African storytelling played a leading role, not only in conveying collective wisdom and social memory from one generation to the next, but also as a medium through which communities transmit the values that hold them together. Contribution: This article adds to the scholarship on storytelling and narratology by showing how educators can utilise stories to analyse legal questions. That rich scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences has so far not taken seriously the possibility of using stories to analyse research problems. Instead, scholars focus on storytelling mainly as a way of presenting science, not as an analytical tool. This article bridges that gap and demonstrates the analytical value of storytelling.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021