Contract from the Margins: The Becoming of a Minor Jurisprudence in the Minority Judgment of Froneman, J in Beadica 231 CC v Trustees for the time being of the Oregon Trust 2020 5 SA 247 CC

Abstract

This article explores the meaning of minor jurisprudence in the work of leading authors on the subject and concludes that the notion of becoming plays a major part in the philosophy of minor jurisprudence as a subtraction from or subversion of the major. The article then connects the preoccupation with becoming in minor jurisprudence to the notion of the hysteric's discourse in the work of Jacques Lacan, after which it moves to a consideration of Froneman, J's minority judgment in the Beadica case. The article suggests that Froneman's minor jurisprudence becomes in three modes: reliance on historical minor jurisprudences, deconstruction and imagination from the margins. As such, this becoming is an instance of hysterical discourse in Lacan's sense of the term.