LAW2552 - Jurisprudence
Spring 2008
M, W 1:45 – 3:15
Requirements
Your final evaluation will be based on class participation and a series of short papers.
Participation
This class will rely heavily on discussions of current legal problems and cases that are not discussed explicitly in the text. Attending class and participating in discussion is an important part of the class and will be taken into account for final evaluations.
Short Papers
You will be asked to write three papers not to exceed 5 pages (12pt type, 1" margins). These papers do not require outside research. You will be asked to write critically on a particular issue applying the readings from class, making a persuasive argument. Detailed instructions for each paper will provided in class.
Paper Due Dates
Required Texts
Gottlieb et al., Jurisprudence Cases and Materials: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Law and Its Applications, 2d ed.
Additional Materials downloaded from SSRN, Westlaw, etc.
Schedule
Introduction
March 3 – No readings. We will be watching a segment of Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. Mcnamara (Sony Pictures Classics 2003).
Natural Law
March 5 – Casebook 179 – 188; 862 – 877 (Aquinas, Nuremberg Trials)
Legal Positivism
March 10 – Casebook 137 – 158 (H.L.A. Hart); Optional Reading: Casebook 166 – 177 (Hans Kelsen)
March 12 – Casebook 913 – 922; 159 – 165 (The Antelope, H.L.A. Hart)
March 17 – NO CLASS
March 19 – Casebook 877 – 911 (Herrera v. Collins)
Responses to Legal Positivism
March 24 – Casebook 200 – 229 (Lon Fuller)
March 26 – No reading assignment
March 31 – Casebook 188 – 200 (John Finnis)
Civil Disobedience
April 2 – Casebook 849 – 861 (Bell v. Maryland); Martin Luther King, "Letter From Birmingham Jail", download (PDF).
April 7 – Casebook 229 – 245. (Ronald Dworkin) PAPER 1 DUE
Legal Realism
April 9 – Casebook 384 – 404 (Holmes, Llwellyn); Scene from Judgment at Nuremberg (Roxlom Films 1961); Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) (download from Westlaw).
Liberalism
April 14 – Casebook 377 – 382; 301 – 305 (Rawls)
Critical Legal Theory
April 16 – Casebook 691 – 723; 728 – 733
April 21 – HOLIDAY
April 23 – Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000), download from Westlaw.
Responding to Critical Legal Theory
April 28 – Brian Tamanaha, "How and Instrumental View of Law Corrodes the Rule of Law" 56 DePaul L. Rev. 469 (2007), download from Westlaw.
April 30 Memorandum from John Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice to W. Haynes, General Counsel, Department of Defense regarding Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees (January 9, 2002), download; Memorandum from Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice to Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the President regarding Standards of Conduct for Interrogation Under 18 U.S.C. §§2340 – 2340A (August 1, 2002), download. PAPER 2 DUE.
May 5 - Jack M. Balkin, Critical Legal Theory Today. Download from SSRN
Law and Economics
May 7 – Casebook 594 – 604; 611 – 616 (Posner, Coase Theorem)
May 16, PAPER 3 DUE
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