Courses / Module

Since ancient times, the question of the nature of law has occupied leading thinkers in the Western philosophical tradition. Like other core philosophical questions, however, there remains today much disagreement about the answer – and even about what a good answer would look like. Whereas the modules Jurisprudence 1 and Jurisprudence 2 focus on the contributions of the leading legal philosophers of the last century, Advanced Issues in Legal Philosophy builds on this foundation to introduce students to the state of the art by exploring current debates.

The module will develop three themes of contemporary legal philosophy, namely, a) inquiry into the general relationship of law and morality by way of traditional philosophical analysis, b) empirical research into general legal concepts, and c) analysis of the foundation of specific legal domains. The aim of the module is to provide a unified overview of the field of legal philosophy; accordingly, it features a pair of module leaders, Dr Conor Crummey and Dr Brian Flanagan, with complementary research backgrounds, who will lead class discussion in tandem. Much of the module will be research-driven, allowing students to engage with the work of the module leaders in a relatively small-group setting.

The method of instruction will involve discussion of one or two prescribed two journal articles or book chapters in a seminar style format. A key aim of the module is to develop students’ skills in close-reading and analysing philosophical texts.

Indicative list of topics (subject to change in any year)

A re-introduction to general jurisprudence
Contemporary Positivism I: Gardner (5 ½ Myths) and Raz I
Contemporary Positivism II: Raz II and Shapiro
Contemporary Non-Positivism I: Dworkin (‘Hard Cases’) and Greenberg I (‘How Facts Make Law I’)
Contemporary Non-Positivism II: Greenberg II (‘The Moral Impact Theory’) and Hershovitz (‘The End of Jurisprudence’)
Experimental Jurisprudence I (Flanagan and Hannikainen 2022; Flanagan and Almeida)
Experimental Jurisprudence II (Struchiner et al 2020; Flanagan et al 2023)
Law and Courts Scholarship (Gillman 2001)
Philosophy of Private Law (Gardner; Shiffrin)
Philosophy of International Law (Koskenniemi)
Philosophy of Public Law/Constitutional Theory (Raz; Dworkin)