Schedule and Readings

Date

Topic, reading

8/31

Philosophy of Law, Syllabus

Please read the syllabus.

CASE: Regina v Dudley and Stephens (1884). Read sections 1+2.

9/14

Jurisprudence and conceptual analysis

Scott J. Shapiro, Legality (2011) Ch. 1, pp. 1-18. Note: This link will lead you to the site to download the whole book as a PDF. Save the PDF to your device for future classes.

Legal facts

Scott J. Shapiro, Legality (2011) Ch. 1, pp. 18-34

9/21

Possibility puzzle and central debate

Scott J. Shapiro, Legality (2011) Ch. 2, pp 35-50

CASE: Riggs v. Palmer (1889).

9/28

Positivism 1: Austin’s Sanction Theory of Law

Paper due

Scott J. Shapiro, Legality (2011) Ch. 3 (pp 51-62 only)

10/5

Positivism 2: Hart on Law as the Union of Primary and Secondary Rules

Scott J. Shapiro, Legality (2011) Ch. 4 (pp. 79-102 only)

10/12

Dworkin’s critique of positivism

Dworkin, Ronald M., “The Model of Rules” (1967). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 3609.

Read sections III and VI (pp. 22-9 and 40-46).

10/19

Dworkin’s critique of positivism, continued

No reading

Midterm Review

10/26

Midterm

Natural Law

Jackson, Justice Robert H. “Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal,” International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, November 21, 1945.

Read the first section, up to the section entitled, “The lawless road to power” (approximately 9 PDF pages).

11/2

Constitutional interpretation

Amy C. Barrett. 2017. Originalism and Stare Decisis, Notre Dame L. Rev. 92 (5), 1921-1943.

Dworkin, Ronald. 1996. “The Moral Reading of the Constitution.” The New York Review of Books, March 21, 1996. [**Note: you may need to create a free account to read this article.]

11/9

Property

Paper due

Locke, John. “V. Of property,” from Second Treatise of Government, ss. 25-51.

Marx, Karl. “Estranged Labor.” In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Translated: by Martin Milligan. Progress Publishers: Moscow 1959.

11/16

Contract

Williams vs Walker-Thomas Furniture Co (1965)

11/23

Criminal

J.S. Mill, “Of the limits to the authority of society over the individual.” Chapter IV of On Liberty (PDF). Read pp. 51-63. *Note: this link downloads the whole book, which contains two different chapter IVs. Please begin reading at page 51.

Patrick Devlin, “The Enforcement of Morals”.

Read pp. 135-146 (begin with the first full paragraph on 135, end with the last full paragraph on 146).

11/30

Punishment

Paper due

Hampton, Jean. 1984. “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 13 (3): 208–38. Read pp. 208-221.

Michel Foucault. 2008. “‘Panopticism’ from Discipline and Punish.”Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts 2(1): 1-12.

12/7

Bail and Sentencing

Hi-Phi Nation. 2019. Risky Business. Season 3, Episode 2 of Hi-Phi Nation Podcast [~49 mins]. Feb. 16.

Final Review

12/14

Final