Learned Staatsrecht from the Heartland of the Rechtsstaat Observations on the Significance of South African-German Interaction in Constitutional Scholarship ?

During (especially the latter half of) the previous century it was impressed on several generations of law students (mainly but not exclusively) at Afrikaans speaking law faculties in South Africa, to pride themselves on their “principled” legal education.1 Akin to (and indeed associated with) the paranormal knack of “thinking/reasoning like a jurist”, principled legal thinking was not really taught (or learnt), but sustained (like injuries) as a result of exposure to principled law teachers, enhanced by the ambiance of a principle-prone law faculty. In the impressionable, young minds thus shaped Begriffsjurisprudenz was principled legal thinking incarnate, and Germany the Valhalla2 for those forever true to it.