PVL4606F

Final Level, half course, first semester, two lectures per week.

9 NQF credits at HEQSF level 8

Convener: Professor A J Barnard-Naudé

Course entry requirements: All Preliminary and Intermediate Level courses to have been completed.

Course outline:

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the spatial dimension of all law. The ancient Greek term for law in its concrete spatiality is ‘nomos’. The course will illustrate how land-appropriation has been a fundamental dimension of the history of the nomos of the Earth as a planetary special order. Special attention will be given to the nomos of colonization, imperialism and apartheid. In  the second part of the course, we focus on the postapartheid spatial order and consider the continuations of, but also the breaks with, the nomos of apartheid. The Constitution, the National Development Plan and the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act will be critically examined. We ask after the extent to which the spatial legacy of apartheid has been displaced by transformative constitutionalism and we consider the persistent impediments (juridical, economic, political, psychological) to postapartheid spatial equality in the context of the new climatic regime at the level of the planet, known as the Anthropocene. In conclusion, we critically consider the role of Ubuntu (as a juridical ethic) and social justice activism in the promotion and achievement of spatial justice

DP requirements: None.

Assessment: Seminar presentation 40%, An essay of 4000-5000 words 60%