LAW 765 - Legal Theory Seminar *

Credits, 3 sem. hrs.

This seminar explores classical and contemporary issues in legal theory. What makes a law legitimate? Is law based on morality or is it a matter of social convention or politics? Should judges rely on the law or extra-legal norms for deciding hard cases? Readings will vary from year to year. Some years the emphasis will be on earlier theorists such as Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, Bentham, Llewellyn, etc. Other years will focus on contemporary theorists such as Ronald Dworkin, Richard Posner, Joseph Raz, Catharine MacKinnon, Robin West, Roberto Unger, and John Finnis. The paper in this course satisfies the writing requirement.

This course has not been offered in the last three years. We have kept it in the catalog after a faculty review because we have plans to offer it in the next two years.

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