BOOK REVIEWS61Zimbabwe Law ReYiew (1983/4), I & II. Harare, Univ. of Zimbabwe, Dep. ofLaw, 1985, 289 pp., various rates of subscription.The first and second volumes of the Zimbabwe Law Review appeared in 1985.They were intended to cover the years 1983 and 1984.1 hope that Volumes IIIand IV will appear in 1986 to bring us up to date. The Review, which should bereferred to in abbreviated form as Z.L, Rev. to distinguish it from the ZimbabweLaw Reports (Z.L.R.), is the successor to the University Law Department'sZimbabwe Law Journal which was published between 1961 and 1982.Why do university law departments publish Law Reviews or Journals?Partly, no doubt, to 'keep up with the Joneses'. Most reputable law departmentsdo so. Therefore, a law department which does not do so feels that it is notreputable. But there is a nobler motive, and it has to do with the dynamics of therelationship between the university and the profession, between academics andpractitioners. (I use the word 'practitioners' here in an extended sense to includeGovernment, which 'practises* law by making and enforcing it.)Teachers and practitioners can coexist on three levels. At worst they canignore each other, going their separate ways and maintaining an intellectualaloofness with its accompanying untested prejudices. If they recognize eachother's existence and develop a relationship, then that relationship can go one oftwo ways. It can be fruitful, with a dynamic tension between the two partiessparking each other to new heights; or it can be barren and thus, inevitably,destructive, each criticizing, demeaning and diminishing the other.The Zimbabwe Law Review is, in this sense, the academic outreach towardspractice; the manifestation, from the University's point of view, of its relationshipwith practitioners and with Government. It is, of course, something more thanthat as well. It is a show-piece of the Law Department, a stage on which aredisplayed the achievements as well as the internal relationships of theDepartment, those between student and staff, progressive and conservativegroups, the Department and the University. So it looks inwards and outwards, amirror, a lighthouse, a signal, a beacon and an illumination.I would judge the Review, therefore, by two standards: How does it contributetowards a creative dynamic relationship between the University, the professionand the Government? And how much does it show of the Law Department's owninternal dynamism?1 would give the Review very high marks on the first basis. The first threearticles on Family and Customary Law by Doris Galen, Robert Seidman andJulie Stewart are extraordinarily useful and thought-provoking discussions ofquestions which are at the centre of today's stage. For anyone concerned with thereform, application or development of the law in these areas, they must berequired reading.These are followed by two articles which relate our law to that of Tanzania inthe one case and Zambia in the other Š a useful reminder to practitioners that wecan and should look beyond South Africa and England. The article on theZambian Bill of Rights is particularly illuminating, and an interesting endorse-ment of the value of a justiciable Bill of Rights.Stewart Cant has written a somewhat abstruse article on 'Police Discretion',which, like some of the other articles, might benefit from having a summary eitheras a headnote or footnote. Next, there is an article by Geoffrey Feltoe on the62BOOK REVIEWSperennially absorbing subject of provocation as a defence in murder or assaultcharges, tracing the growth in our law through TenganyikcCs and Nanganfs cases,as it develops differently from the South African law.Finally in this section of the Review there is a reproduction of an address b\Shadreck Gutto to the 1984 Summer School on 'I .;m and Legal Lducauon in theperiod of transition from Capitalism to Socialism'.The next section of the Review is entitled 'Dialogue" and contains an 18-pagearticle by Kempton Makamure and Shadreck Gutio. I am not sure that it is adialogue unless you define dialogue as a monologue by t \\ <' people. The arucle iswell-constructed although for my taste spoiled b> the use oiemotive language inplace of reasoned argument. It criticizes the foreign poiic\ of the l.-nited Slates ofAmerica.The student contribution section which follows shows the value of theDepartment's requirement of a dissertation from its students as part of the BI,course. The three articles are, in fact, expanded and polished dissertations bystudents, two of whom are now on the staff. Thev are SA, oil worth reading.Ben Hlatshwayo gives a critical historical analvsis of the Hi re-Purchase Lawof Zimbabwe from a 'historical materialist' point of view: Welshman Ncube hassome useful and thoughtful comments on the Legal Age of Majority Aci and thedecision in Katekwe v. Muchabaiwa; and Moses Chinyen/e discusses a book onlohola by the ever-controversial and stimulating Ignatius Chigwedere.At the end of the volume there are four comments on decided cases. Thereshould, I think, be more. An article by Felicity Rooney on the Legal Aid Clinic isvaluable because it is a practical commentary on a most important aspect of theUniversity's work Š its contribution towards society which at the same timeprovides practical training. The Review ends with a reproduction of the text of theNkomati Accords, a Survey of Legislation during the period 1980-4, and twobook reviews.I have said that this first edition of the Zimbabwe Law Review scores well as aconstructive and creative outreach towards practitioners. I think it succeedsalmost equally in its effort to show us, outside the University, what theDepartment is achieving and trying to achieve. I hope that in the next volume wemay hear more about the proposed changes in the curriculum and the reasons forthose changes.Supreme Court of ZimbabweMr Justice NJ. MCNALLYTwo Minutes to Midnight Various authors. Harare, Gemini/Kailani Publishers,1985, 184pp., Z$ 11.50.Ivory Madness By David M.H. Lemon. Harare, The College Press, ModernWriters of Zimbabwe Series, 1983, 146pp., Z$4.95,So much of contemporary publishing in Zimbabwe is naturally concerned withgreat issues that it is something of a relief to turn for a moment to some lighterliterature, and both Two Minutes to Midnight and Ivory Madness are very lightliterature indeed, albeit for different reasons.Two Minutes to Midnight is a polished collection of short-short stories chosen,