Epistemological & Legal Etymology: Semantics of Justice. Literature Review
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This literature review examines the intersection of etymology and epistemology in understanding justice within South Africa's legal system, focusing on how semantic analysis reveals deeper tensions between colonial legal traditions, indigenous African legal systems, and contemporary constitutional frameworks. Drawing extensively on decolonial legal scholarship, particularly the work of Tshepo Madlingozi, the review demonstrates how etymological investigation exposes what Madlingozi terms "antiblack legal architecture" embedded within seemingly neutral legal concepts. The analysis traces how colonial legal imposition systematically suppressed indigenous African legal epistemologies, particularly Ubuntu-based approaches to justice that emphasized restoration and collective responsibility over individual rights and retributive punishment. Through examination of apartheid legal discourse, constitutional transformation, and contemporary debates around land reform and legal education, thereview reveals how legal language functions as a technology of power that can either reproduce or challenge existing relations of domination. The South African context provides a crucial case study for understanding how etymological analysis might serve broader decolonial projects, while also highlighting the structural constraints that limit transformative potential within existing legal institutions. The review concludes that meaningful transformation requires not merely semantic or curricular reform but fundamental challenges to the epistemological foundations of colonial legal systems through what Madlingozi terms "epistemic disobedience."This work contributes to growing scholarship on decolonial jurisprudence while demonstrating the political dimensions of legal knowledge production within post-colonial African contexts.
Author: Modisane, Moses
Institution: University of Cape Town
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6930720234
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