PHIL 878 Philosophy of Law
This course will focus on the contemporary debate between advocates of natural law theory and legal positivism. The core readings will be taken from H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law (1961), Joseph Raz's Practical Reason and Norms (1975), John Finnis's Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980) and Ronald Dworkin's Law's Empire (1986). We will be concerned with questions about the nature and validity of legal norms and legal systems, the relationship of legal reasoning to practical reason more generally (as related especially to the practice of interpretation, but also to the political context of law), as well as to some methodological questions about philosophical jurisprudence.