Prof Michael Wilkinson

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad), BSc in Politics and Philosophy and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available to General Course students.

The aims of the course are: To introduce students to philosophical thinking about the law. To familiarise students with the main methodological, conceptual, and normative issues in the study of law and the rule of law. To provide students with knowledge of some of the most influential legal philosophers and their theories of law. To encourage and enable students to think about doctrinal legal questions from a philosophical and critical perspective. To help students to develop legal reasoning skills by training them in abstract, philosophical arguments. Some of the themes that the course covers are: legal realism, natural law; legal positivism; the rule of law and legality; the use and significance of principles in adjudication and legal reasoning, methodology in jurisprudence.

This course will have a minimum of two hours of teaching content each week in Autumn Term in the form of a lecture (every week) and one hour class. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students will be expected to write at least one essay.

Students are provided with outlines and readings for topics discussed in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. For some introductory and background reading see: S. Veitch, E. Christodoulidis, and M. Goldoni, Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts (3rd. ed), Routledge 2018; J.E. Penner and E. Melissaris, McCoubrey & White's Textbook on Jurisprudence, OUP 2012; Brian Bix, Jurisprudence: Theory and Context (3rd ed.), Thomson Sweet & Maxwell 2003.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.