BCP201 | CPC I

The Legal Methods introduces students to the concept of law and legal philosophy. The Jurisprudence course builds on these foundations to develop a philosophical – legal and political – understanding of the nature of law and its normativity, the connections between law and morality, the obligation to obey the law and views about justice.

While the debates in jurisprudence are set at a level of philosophical abstraction, this course will engage with the profound implications of these concepts on the everyday practice of law. This includes the interpretation of rules and the debate between HLA Hart and Ronald Dworkin, and the dispensation of justice through State machinery in light of competing theories of social justice. What is law? What is the relationship between law and morality? How should general rules be applied to particular cases? What are legal obligations? What is justice?

With a view to critically assess different ideas regarding law and justice in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this course will engage with the writings of select legal philosophers of the analytical tradition in depth. The course will also engage with challenges to the views of the analytical tradition, particularly Critical Legal Studies (CLS) and feminist jurisprudence.