CJT214 | Jurisprudence And The Paradox Of Wicked Laws

While Jurisprudence as a subject incorporates philosophical and juridical enquiries having ancient roots and a rich history, this course surveys the contemporary debates on law and morality which have generated much interest in the last five decades. Central to the course is an examination of the role morality should play in determining the legal validity of ‘evil’ or ‘wicked’ statutes. It examines the debates around how courts, legislatures, and other law-enforcers should act when presented by the dilemma of enforcing a morally wicked, but a clearly, legally valid law.

These discussions would be contextualized through the real-life examples of wicked laws and the dilemmas presented by them to courts and law enforcers. These include the grudge-informer cases dealt by the post-WWII courts, the Fugitive Slave Acts in the pre-civil-rights US, among others. These examples demonstrate that juridical and philosophical enquiries into the role morality should play in the determination of legal validity, are not mere academic questions, but have significant practical applications. Their relevance continues in the modern times with legally recognized and yet morally abhorrent regimes operating within the world order