Jurisprudence

Catalog description

Jurisprudence is theoretical reflection on law and covers a vast number of topics. This seminar will explore jurisprudence in a way that explicitly connects to the foundational subjects studied in the first year of law school. To explain: Tort law presents a standard of care in acting (the 'reasonable person'); contract law says that promises are enforceable only if they are given for 'consideration'; criminal liability requires both an actus reus and a mens rea. The first-year treatment of these topics, however, offers little time to inquire into the broader purposes of these rules, much less to ask whether they add up to an intelligent or attractive picture of human association. (Some theorists are quite skeptical about this.) Such inquiries have a practical aspect in addition to a theoretical one, because questions about law's deeper purposes often arise in controversial appellate cases, where judges have to interpret the rules and extend them in new situations. Members of this seminar will thus become acquainted with the various theoretical justifications that have been proposed for the law (as well as some of the critiques the law has attracted) in the best classical and contemporary writing. We will argue with one another about some controversial cases as well. The seminar is ideal for law students who wish to deepen their legal education by connecting it to broader questions in philosophy and the humanities, or for graduate students who wish to orient themselves to contemporary theoretical debates about law. Take-home exam or paper option; writing credit available.