LAW2552 - Jurisprudence
Summer 2008
M, W 12:00 – 1:30
Requirements
Your final evaluation will be based on class participation and a take home examination.
Download your final examination here
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.
Required Texts
Gottlieb et al., Jurisprudence Cases and Materials: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Law and Its Applications, 2d ed.
Brian Z. Tamanaha, On the Rule of Law: History, Politics, Theory
Additional materials can be downloaded easily from Westlaw, SSRN, or can be found on the internet. Contact me if you have trouble locating something.
Schedule
Introduction & Ancient Near East
May 28 - 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. (Introduction to Jurisprudence)
June 2 - Casebook 5 - 28 (Ancient Near East)
Natural Law
June 4 - Casebook 57 - 84 (Aristotle, Cicero)
June 9 - Casebook 179 - 188; 849 - 861 (Aquinas, Bell v. Maryland)
Justice and Rule of Law
June 11 - Tamanaha 15 - 31; Jeremy Bentham, Chapter 1: Of the Principle of Utility, Chapter 4: Value of a Lot of Pleasure or Pain How to Be Measured, in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1823)(This work is available for free online); Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Please read Section II 4:407 - 414; 416; 419 - 429; 431 - 435, on reserve in library).
June 16 - Casebook 247 - 268; 377 - 382 (Rawls)
June 18 - NO CLASS
June 23 - Casebook 269 -300; 961 - 973 (Rawls, San Antonio Indep. School Dist. vs. Rodriguez)
June 25 - Casebook 594 - 604 (Normative Law and Economics)
June 30 - Tamanaha 91 - 126 (Rule of Law)
Legal Realism
July 2 - Casebook 365 - 377; 384 - 404
July 7 - Casebook 862 - 876 (Nuremberg Trials)Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Sony Pictures Classics 2003).Map of Boston assuming targets based on Allied WWII obliteration bombing tactics applied to Tokyo firebombing, based on J.C. Ford's The Morality of Obliteration Bombing.
Legal Positivism
July 9 - Casebook 137 - 158; 913 - 922 (H.L.A. Hart, The Antelope)
July 14 - Casebook 159 - 177 (H.L.A. Hart, Hans Kelsen)
Responses to Legal Positivism
July 16 - Casebook 188 - 229; Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000) (John Finnis, Lon L. Fuller)
July 23 - Casebook 229 - 245 (Ronald Dworkin)
Critical Legal Theory & Responses
July 28 - Casebook 410 - 428 (Intro to CLS)
July 30 - Casebook 691 – 723; 728 – 759 (Key Concepts)
August 4 - Casebook 428 - 432; 443 - 460 (Critical Race Theory)
August 6 - Casebook 778 - 793(Pragmatism)
August 15 - Final Exam Due, 12PM
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