PH239      Half Unit
Anarchy, Authority and Evidence: Topics in Philosophy of Law

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Anarchy, Authority and Evidence tackles philosophical questions about legal systems and criminal justice. No prior legal knowledge is required.

The first half of the course typically discusses big picture questions about the purpose of law and what, if anything, the criminal justice system achieves. For example, we might consider the moral obligation to obey the law, the viability of political anarchism, the justification of punishment, dispute-resolution without the state, and the moral status of civil or violent disobedience.

The second half of the course usually takes a closer, critical look at how criminal justice works in practice. For example, we might discuss questions like: What is the fairest way to evaluate allegations of sexual criminality? Should we use algorithms to make decisions about parole or punishment severity? Should we defer to juries or instead use professional judges? Does it make sense to treat a corporation as morally responsible? What alternatives are there to prisons?

By the end of the course, you will have a solid understanding of foundational and applied questions in philosophy of law - as well as a better grasp of how the law operates in practice.

10 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

You will have the opportunity to get formative feedback on a presentation and written work. This includes the chance to practice an exam-style answer. 

Delmas, Candice (2018). A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should Be Uncivil. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.

Kropotkin, Petr (2015). The Conquest of Bread. Penguin.

Huemer, Michael (2012). The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nagel, Thomas (1976) Moral Luck. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes. Vol. 50

Jorgensen, Renée (2020). The rational impermissibility of accepting (some) racial generalizations. Synthese 197 (6):2415-2431.

Hoskins, Zachary (2017). Punishment. Analysis 77 (3): 619–632.

Exam (100%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

A straightforward exam in the Spring Examination period. (This happens from May onwards - so you don't have to revise over the Winter break). The exam will consist of two mini essays. You'll have the chance to type the exam on your laptop if desired.