1014964 - LEGAL THEORY

Frontal/traditional teaching.

Frontal lectures, with the support of slides, are designed in the logic of active, individual and collective student learning, through analysis of case studies, films and documentaries, simulations, problem-solving, working groups, collective classroom discussions and (depending on the number of attendees) final presentation of individual or group work/research.

Attendance is strongly recommended, given the seminar and dialogic nature of the course, group work and classroom discussions. 

Law is at the center of our social and political life. Legal theory illuminates it and relates it to the universal issues of justice, rights and morality. It analyzes the nature and purpose of our legal system and its practice by courts, lawyers and judges. 

The course is divided into three parts or modules: 

1) General introduction: main theories, currents of thought and thinkers of legal theory; 

2) Special module: "Power and Law according to Hobbes," held by Professor Emiliano Acosta (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Ghent University); 

3) Contemporary theories and case studies.

TEXTS FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

R. Wacks, Understanding jurisprudence: An introduction to legal theory, Oxford University Press, 2020 (or any following edition)

1 Introduction

2 Natural law and morality

3 Classical legal positivism

4 Modern legal positivism

5 Dworkin and the moral integrity of law

6 Legal realism

7 Law and social theory

8 Historical and anthropological jurisprudence

9 Theories of justice

10 Rights

11 Why obey the law?

12 Why punish?

13 Critical legal theory

14 Feminist and critical race theory

15 Jurisprudence understood?

TEXTS FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS

The syllabus and texts for attending students will be explained during the first lecture of the Course.

A selections of chapters from the text, Slides and other short texts to be read before class (e.g., chapters, articles, videos, news articles, debates, etc.), questions and exercises to consolidate the learning process will be made available on the "Studium" platform well in advance.

A special lecture module on "Power and Law according to Hobbes" will be held by Prof. Emiliano Acosta (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Ghent University). Readings for this module will be made available on the "Studium" platform well in advance.

Oral exam.

Assessment elements: Relevance of answers to the questions formulated and quality of content; argumentative ability and critical analysis of the topics studied; ability to connect with other topics covered in the program, and ability to give examples; technical language property and overall expressive ability of the student.

Examination questions are mainly based on the titles of the articles/chapters, the key concepts, the problems addressed by the authors and the theses they advocate, and the various applications of these problems and theses to concrete cases.

Examples of questions: 1) Contemporary natural law theories; 2) Main differences between Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau; 3) Law and morality; 4) Legal positivism and the issue of sanction (i.e. Bentham vs Austin); 5) Contemporary Legal Positivism (i.e. Hart, Kelsen, Raz); 6) Legal Realism; 7) Human rights; 8) Contemporary theories of Justice (i.e. John Rawls); 9) Why obey the law?