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  5. The Concept of Ubuntu as an Axiological Element of African Legal Culture

Almanac of law. Issue 17 (2026), pages 495–503.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2026-17-495-503

Ulyhanets V. I.
The Concept of Ubuntu as an Axiological Element of African Legal Culture

The article offers a theoretical and legal analysis of the concept of ubuntu as a foundational element of African legal culture and examines its role in the constitutional jurisprudence of the Republic of South Africa. In the context of contemporary debates on legal pluralism, post-conflict constitutionalism, and the decolonization of legal knowledge, the article presents ubuntu as a concept that challenges dominant Eurocentric paradigms of legal theory. The study explores the ontological, ethical, and normative dimensions of ubuntu, emphasizing its understanding of the human person as intrinsically embedded in a community of mutual obligations and shared responsibilities. Ubuntu is analyzed not merely as a moral or philosophical idea, but as a constitutional value and an interpretative principle that corroborates judicial reasoning and contributes to the humanization of law. The article argues that ubuntu operates simultaneously at the level of legal culture and constitutional axiology.

Particular attention is devoted to the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, where ubuntu has been invoked in cases concerning transitional justice, dignity, equality, restorative justice, and the development of “living customary law”. The article demonstrates that ubuntu has played a significant role in shaping what is often described as “dignity jurisprudence”, especially in landmark decisions addressing the abolition of the death penalty, the reconciliation process, and the constitutional transformation of post-apartheid society. Through these judicial practices, ubuntu functions as a normative framework that prioritizes reconciliation over retribution, restoration over retaliation, and communal harmony over formalistic legalism. In this sense, ubuntu contributes to the development of a restorative and dialogical model of constitutional adjudication.

The research further situates ubuntu within a comparative legal perspective by examining its relationship to the concept of human dignity in European traditions. The article highlights both convergences and divergences between these traditions, demonstrating that while European dignity discourse is often grounded in individual autonomy, ubuntu articulates dignity through relational identity and communal belonging. The article argues that ubuntu reflects a socio-centric type of legal culture, in which communal identity occupy a primary position in the hierarchy of legal values. At the same time, it shows that such socio-centric orientation does not negate individual rights but reinterprets them within a framework of mutual responsibility and social embeddedness.

By integrating philosophical analysis, comparative legal methodology, and elements of legal anthropology, the study concludes that ubuntu may be understood as a distinctive African contribution to global legal theory and, in a broader philosophical sense, as an expression of natural law within African legal thought. The findings support the conclusion that ubuntu represents a dynamic and context-sensitive normative principle capable of guiding constitutional interpretation in pluralistic societies. Thus, ubuntu emerges not only as a cultural concept rooted in African tradition but also as a theoretically significant category for rethinking justice, dignity, and the foundations of constitutional order in a global perspective.

Keywords: anthropology of law, philosophy of law, comparative law, axiology of law, human rights, ubuntu, legal culture, anthropological and legal studies in Africa, case law, principle of law.

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Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 09.03.2026
Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 09.04.2026
Дата публікації: 30.04.2026

 

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