The Bill of Rights is a novelty in Tanzania. As is well-known, Tanzanian Constitutions from independence to 1984 did not contain a bill of rights. Partly for this reason, legal discourse, whether in teaching or in practice, did not centre on rights issues particularly in the relationship between the state and citizen. At the Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam, there developed an approach to teaching which the university calendar refers to as “the historical, socio-economic” method. The socioeconomic method emerged in contrast to the “law and development” approach which was a manifestation of the modernization theory on the legal plane. Neither of these revolved around the question of rights. Put rhetorically, “law and development” saw law essentially as an instrument of social change while the “socio-economic method” regarded law as an instrument of the ruling class. This may be a little over-simplified, but I believe broadly represents the main points of departure of, and contention between, the two schools—at least at that time at the Dar es Salaam Faculty.