Dr Emmanuel Melissaris, F6.17

This course is compulsory for LLB students and optional for BA Anthropology and Law. Available as an outside option and to General Course students.

To introduce the philosophy of law. To explore fundamental methodological and substantive questions concerning the nature of law and legal theory and study central themes advanced by some of the most influential jurisprudential theories highlighting their links to other areas of philosophy. To examine selected modern legal theories and political philosophies either defending or questioning the philosophical assumptions underpinning modern law.

Foundation theories that are studied include those of; conventionalist and epistemic Legal Positivism; interpretivism; the discourse theory of law; critical approaches to law and legal theory. Selected topics from the following list: Immanuel Kant and the Foundations of Modern Liberalism, Marxism and the Law, Modern Theories of Justice, Disobedience, Punishment, Feminist Legal Theory, Economic Analysis of Law, Foucault and Law, Hannah Arendt and the Political.

Students should attend two lectures and one class each week.

Students will be expected to write one essay each term.

Students are provided with outlines and readings for topics discussed in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. For introductory and background reading see: Nigel Simmonds, Central Issues in Jurisprudence: Justice, Law, and Rights, Sweet & Maxwell 2002; Brian Bix, Jurisprudence: Theory and Context (3^rd ed.), Thomson Sweet & Maxwell 2003.

A three-hour unseen written examination will be held in the ST. The examination paper will be divided into first (section A) and second (section B) term questions. Students will be required to answer three questions from a wide choice of questions, but at least one question from each section.