PHIL 3211 Philosophy of Law, FA2024 E058

Our next analytical outline exercise will occur next class (this coming Monday, 10/7). Reading and understanding the assigned section (Scott J. Shapiro, “Austin’s Sanction Theory.” Ch. 3 in Legality (2011) (pp 51-62 only)) ahead of time will be immensely helpful to you in completing this in-class assignment. I will assign a smaller portion from this reading for you to outline in class.

You can find instructions for the analytical outlines on the Analytical Outline page. You will also want to take into consideration my comments on the first Analytical Outline.

Because this is an in-class assignment there is no way to complete it if you are not present. In cases where a student has an excused absence (generally only for medical reasons or bereavement), students should talk to me about how to make up for the missing grade.

Write a 4-sentence paper responding to one of the arguments given by Louis Seidman in the piece (“Let’s Give Up on the Constitution”) we outlined in class today. Please use one of the points or arguments you identified in your analytical outline. If you did not do an outline or did not record any of Seidman’s points or arguments in your outline, you will have to look at the original piece again to find one of his arguments.

Before you begin be sure to carefully read the 4-sentence Paper Assignment. Bring the paper with you to class or email it to Dr. MacDougall by midnight. 

See zoom link on Brightspace.

We will compose our first analytical outline in class next Monday, 9/16. Please read the assigned reading in preparation for that class. We will discuss the format for the analytical outlines in the first half of class and then do the exercise in the second half of class. If you would like to get a head-start on understanding the assignment, take a look at the Analytical Outline Assignment Page. 

Because this is an in-class assignment there is no way to complete it if you are not present. In cases where a student has an excused absence (generally only for medical reasons or bereavement), students should talk to me about how to make up for the missing grade.

I’m Dr. MacDougall, your professor for Philosophy of Law (PHIL 3211). There are two things I want you to know before our first meeting on Monday September 9.

1. Most of our written interactions, class updates and materials, are available here on our OpenLab site. Please join our OpenLab section as soon as possible. You will be required to join in order to participate in online discussions. You can also see the schedule and assignments there.

2. This class is an Open Educational Resource (OER) course. That means there is no textbook, and all readings are freely available online. This saves you money and means you can store all our readings on your hard drive, indefinitely! You can find links to class readings on the schedule page.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

Dr. MacDougall