1014964 - LEGAL THEORY
Modalità di svolgimento dell'insegnamento
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.
Prerequisiti richiesti
Per le propedeuticità formali consultare il regolamento didattico della coorte di riferimento disponibile nella pagina dedicata http://www.lex.unict.it/it/chi-siamo/regolamenti-didattici-del-corso-di-laurea-magistrale-ciclo-unico-giurisprudenza-lmg01
Frequenza lezioni
Attendance is strongly recommended, given the seminar and dialogic nature of the course, group work and classroom discussions.
Contenuti del corso
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 foundtions, 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) Foundations. Human dignity and human rights: between liberty, equality and solidarity. Liberal, utilitarian and egualitarian perspectives (theories, currents of thought, thinkers)
2) Special module (held by visiting professor Marc Goëtzmann (Université de Tours)). Philosophies of property rights: from John Locke to Elinor Ostrom. The case of US regulatory takings, environmental and rent control regulations (theories, case studies and moot court)
3) Contemporary issues: Discriminations, affirmative actions and reverse discriminations; Liberal toleration, morality and Law: same sex-marriage / freedom of expression; Feminist legal philosophies and critical race theories; Rights of nature, rights of animals (case studies).
Testi di riferimento
TEXTS FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS
The syllabus and texts for attending students will be explained during the first lecture of the Course.
The lectures will mainly be based on a selection of chapters and/or articles taken from:
- J. Waldron, Dignity, rank, and rights. The tanner lectures on human values, 29 (2009)
- R. Wacks, Understanding jurisprudence: An introduction to legal theory, Oxford University Press, 2020 (or any following edition).
- M. Sandel, Justice: What's the right thing to do? (any publishing house / edition) [henceforth "Sandel 1"]
- M. Sandel, Justice: a reader, Oxford University Press (2007) [henceforth "Sandel 2"]
A selections of chapters from the texts, 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.
Readings for the Special module (and the relative Moot Court) will be made available on the "Studium" platform well in advance.
TEXTS FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS
R. Wacks, Understanding jurisprudence: An introduction to legal theory, Oxford University Press, 2020 (or any following edition).
All chapters: 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?
Programmazione del corso
| Argomenti | Riferimenti testi | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Human dignity: between liberty, equality and solidarity | |
| 2 | Utilitarianism and social welfare (J. Bentham and J.S. Mill) | |
| 3 | Liberty (I): liberalism and rights (From J. Locke to R. Nozick) | |
| 4 | Liberty (II): autonomy, morality and law (I. Kant) | |
| 5 | Special module, held by visiting professor Marc Goëtzmann (Université de Tours): Philosophies of property rights: Theory, case studies and moot court | |
| 6 | Equality (I): egalitarianism, distributive justice and meritocracy (J. Rawls) | |
| 7 | Equality (II): capability approach (A. Sen, M. Nussbaum) | |
| 8 | Solidarity: Justice and community (A. McIntyre, M. Sandel, M. Walzer) | |
| 9 | Discriminations, affirmative actions and reverse discriminations (case studies) | |
| 10 | Liberal toleration, morality and Law (I): same sex-marriage (case studies) | |
| 11 | Liberal toleration, morality and Law (I): Freedom of expression (case studies) | |
| 12 | Feminist legal philosophies and critical race theories (case studies) | |
| 13 | Rights of nature, rights of animals (case studies) |
Verifica dell'apprendimento
Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
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.
Esempi di domande e/o esercizi frequenti
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?
English version