Legal pedagogy through AI: A justice-oriented approach for equity and transformation in South African higher education

Higher education institutions face both opportunities and risks when adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), offering possibilities for educational progress while simultaneously deepening existing social inequalities. With the rapid adoption of AI in the legal profession, there is a growing need to reimagine legal pedagogy. Within the scholarship of teaching and learning, the pedagogical and ethical aspects of AI in education have received extensive global research, yet South African legal pedagogy has received limited study as far as its transformative potential is concerned, despite its ongoing social inequalities. The study examines AI-mediated learning environments through person–environment theory as well as Freire’s critical/postcolonial pedagogy in exploring their impact AI may have on students' legal reasoning abilities, research skills, and access to knowledge. The study employs qualitative document analysis of South African higher education policy documents alongside international AI-based legal education platforms. Preliminary analysis suggests that AI has the potential to enhance legal reasoning and research efficiency, yet also risks maintaining epistemic exclusion and the digital divide unless structural inequalities are addressed. The research adds to teaching and learning scholarship by proposing a justice-oriented framework that unites theoretical and practical approaches to integrate AI into South African legal education, thereby promoting socially just transformation. The research proposes inclusive curriculum design, critical digital literacy training, and context-sensitive pedagogical approaches. Situated within a Global South perspective, the study thus offers one of the first to combine theoretical insights and practical recommendations for using AI to challenge entrenched inequalities and promote socially just legal education transformation.