Many first-year students in the School of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College, who have been disadvantaged by a poor primary and secondary education, exhibit poor legal writing skills. Over a period of four years, in order to address this urgent need for legal writing instruction, the School of Law introduced two successive legal writing interventions. The first intervention was the Concise Writing Programme, followed by the Integrated Skills in Context Programme. The Concise Writing Programme focused on English writing skills and grammar in the hope that first-year law students would be able to transfer these generic writing skills to the more specific legal discourse within which they were learning to operate. The Law School reviewed the success of this initial programme and found that students who took part in the programme not only lacked the motivation to learn generic English writing skills, but that they also did not find it easy to transfer these skills to the more specific legal writing environment. The Law School then implemented a second legal writing intervention -The Integrated Skills in Context Programme. This programme acknowledged the fact that legal writing has a multi-faceted nature, encompassing legal analysis and application, as well as logical sequencing and argument, all of which could not be taught in a vacuum, particularly when most of the student base was largely unfamiliar with any form of legal discourse and many had English as a second language. This paper recognises that there is no silver bullet to improving the legal writing skills of these students. The reality is that it will take hard work as well as financial incentives to make a difference to these students' legal writing skills. Our students need intensive one-on-one attention by qualified academics, and this means that those doing the instruction must be recognised and adequately compensated.

For centuries corporal punishment was used as a method for disciplining school children in Britain. Britain was one of the last countries in the European Union to abolish this form of punishment in its schools, and did so only after a long and bitter struggle waged in parliament, on the streets, and in various courts of law. This article traces the manner in which this practice became deeply entrenched in the British way of life, as well as the long battle to dislodge it. The focus then shifts to the evolution and eventual demise of this form of punishment in South African schools. During the long years of British rule in South Africa, British attitudes towards the corporal punishment of school children profoundly influenced those responsible for education in this African country. However, the attachment of South African educational authorities, educators, and parents to corporal punishment cannot be explained simply by reference to the influence of British educational values, and the article seeks to take account of the general history of corporal punishment in the African context. This history is entwined with the history of colonialism on the continent, and the article explores the unique social meanings attached to this form of punishment in the African context, as well as its historical importance as a means of social control. The article is divided into two parts. In part one of the article, the evolution and eventual demise of corporal punishment in British schools is traced, followed by a brief general overview of corporal punishment in the African context, as well as a short discussion of the use and eventual abolition of this form of punishment in South African schools. In part two of the article, the continued use of corporal punishment in South African schools, even after this form of punishment was legally abolished following the end of apartheid, is examined in detail.

In a recent two-part article in this journal, the authors of this note analysed the controversy surrounding the ritual bull-killing which takes place during the Ukweshwama “first fruits” ceremony held each year in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. While much of the Ukweshwama ceremony is uncontroversial, the ritual killing of a bull by young Zulu warriors with their bare hands attracted strong opposition from certain animal-rights groups, which resulted in legal action and public controversy. The authors attempted to disentangle the different legal, historical, political and philosophical strands which combined to make up a complex story about the place of ancient rituals in the modern world, particularly those involving animal sacrifice. They also attempted to situate the controversy around the Ukweshwama bull-killing ritual within a contemporary global context, by comparing and contrasting the Zulu bull-killing ceremony on the one hand, and Spanish bullfighting on the other. The purpose of the present note is to report on recent developments in what is a global debate on the place of ancient rituals which involve the ritual killing of animals, within modern constitutional democracies. In particular, this note will examine and discuss the outcome of a recent legal challenge brought before the Constitutional Council of the Republic of France by certain animal-welfare groups in that country. The challenge was directed at bringing an end to a legal exception which operates in certain parts of the country – that is, those with an uninterrupted local tradition of bullfighting – excluding bullfighting from the provisions of animal-welfare legislation. The legal, political and cultural issues which arise as a result of this legal challenge are of relevance to those in South Africa who are concerned, one way or the other, about the future of the annual Ukweshwama bull-killing ritual in KwaZulu-Natal. Like it or not, although the bull-killing rituals which take place in the South of France and in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa are very different, the similarities between the rituals and their impact on broader society (legally, politically and culturally), are such that they cannot be ignored. The authors make a similar point in relation to the links between Spanish bullfighting and the Ukweshwama bull-killing ritual.

This two-part article explores two central themes – student motivation and critical thinking – as they relate to teaching law students how to write like lawyers. The article examines these two themes through the lens of a case study on a legal writing programme, the “Write it Like a Lawyer” [WiLL] programme implemented at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, in 2019. The design of the programme draws upon three distinct teaching principles – constructive alignment, learner participation and conversations in feedback. This article argues that by applying these principles when teaching legal writing, law students are motivated to engage critically with legal materials, thereby enabling them to produce persuasive, logical, coherent legal writing, containing well-substantiated arguments. The article is in two parts. Part 1 begins by focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of the main themes of the article as well as the teaching principles applied in the WiLL programme. It then goes on to describe the significance of the central themes to a legal writing programme such as WiLL. Part 2 of this article moves on to a discussion of the three teaching principles – constructive alignment, learner participation (including blended-learning techniques) and conversations in feedback – and the manner in which these principles were used to achieve the desired outcomes in the WiLL programme. Finally, the second part of the article evaluates the relative success of employing the three principles in order to further student motivation and critical thinking in the programme. The article concludes with recommendations for improvements that could be implemented in future such programmes.

Each year in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a ceremony is held by the Zulu people in honour of the “first fruits”. A certain part of what is known as the Ukweshwama ceremony involves the ritual killing of a bull by young Zulu warriors with their bare hands. The ritual is opposed by certain animal rights campaigners, who believe it is cruel to the animal which is sacrificed. A highly polarized debate has arisen between those opposed to any form of cruelty to animals on the one hand, and those seeking to defend ancient cultural practices on the other. The purpose of this article is to explore whether or not ancient rituals such as the ritual bull-killing at theUkweshwama ceremony have a place in the modern world, and to interrogate the implications of the dispute which has arisen for the development of South Africa’s constitutional democracy. The article is in two parts. Part One provides a brief synopsis of the importance of cattle within traditional Zulu culture and traces the public controversy surrounding the bull-killing ritual in KwaZulu-Natal. It also examines the legal arguments put before court on the issue, and discusses the origins in antiquity of certain of the main myths and rituals concerning bulls and bullkilling. Part Two compares and contrasts the respective controversies surroundingthe Ukweshwama bull-killing ritual on the one hand, and Spanish bullfighting on the other. It also examines the wide range of positions adopted by philosophers and legal scholars vis-a-vis difficult questions of animal rights and cruelty to animals. The two sides of the argument are weighed up and tentative conclusions are reached.