Nelson Mandela As an Attorney Term Paper

By this time, Mandela had earned his law degree and opened a practice in Johannesburg by 1952 with partner Oliver Tambo. The practice focused on apartheid-related cases, such as those that dealt with land-use laws that blatantly discriminated against indigenous Africans. Interestingly, the authorities forced Mandela and Tambo's practice out of the city based on the very laws they were trying to change. Being forced to move their practice highlighted the need for rapid and thorough changes to the law.

After a few years in practice, Mandela also worked on cases involving labor laws, university segregation, Bantustan segregation, and Pass laws, which restricted the free movement of black Africans. His work unearthed layer upon layer of unjust civil laws that systematically oppressed the native population of the region. For example, Bantustan laws referred to the setting aside of parcels of land expressly for the use of black Africans, but the system only served the best interests of the white-controlled government.Police brutality was also common on Bantustan lands ("Biography of Nelson Mandela"). In 1960, the authorities banned the African National Congress, signaling an impending crisis.

Having used civil disobedience and his legal practice to challenge the prevailing authorities, Mandela's work was influenced by his contemporary Mohandas (Mahatma) Ghandi. Whether formally or not, Mandela's work for freedom bears strong philosophical resemblance to American and French independence movements, which were in turn based on the Enlightenment theories of Kant, Locke, Hume, and Paine. Nothing Mandela did during his struggle for freedom and justice can be heavily criticized. Nelson Mandela proves that the law can be changed from within to create a more just civil society.

References

Biography of Nelson Mandela." Retrieved Mar 2, 2008 at http://www.anc.org.za/people/mandela.html

Nelson Mandela." Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved Mar 2, 2008 at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html.....