95548 - Sem. Advanced Legal Theory Reading Group

Learning outcomes

The Advanced Legal Theory Reading Group is designed to help law students develop theoretical thinking skills by analyzing the arguments used in legal theory in reasoning about fundamental legal concepts: we will be critiquing these arguments and constructing alternative solutions. Students are expected to come to the seminar having already familiarized themselves with the required reading: in this way, instead of taking up time to set up the arguments in class, we can focus directly on their merits and structure in discussion. In this year’s seminar, we will be discussing papers devoted to six fundamental themes in legal theory: Authority, Normativity, Evidence, Adjudication, Coercion, and Human Rights. The papers are the following:

Course contents

This year’s seminar discusses papers devoted to six fundamental themes in legal theory: Authority, Normativity, Evidence, Adjudication, Coercion, and Human Rights.

Readings/Bibliography

ALEXY, Robert, 1996, “Discourse Theory and Human Rights” in Ratio Juris, vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 209-235.

EHRENBERG, Kenneth, 2020, “The Institutionality of Legal Validity” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 100, issue 2, pp. 277-301.

ENDICOTT, Timothy, 1999, “The Impossibility of the Rule of Law” in Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 19, issue 1, pp. 1-18.

FERRER, Jordi, 2006, “Legal Proof and Fact Finder’s Belief”, in Legal Theory, vol. 12, issue 4, pp. 293-314.

KELSEN, Hans, 1950, “Causality and Imputation”, in Ethics, vol. 61, issue 1, pp. 1-11.

RAZ, Josef, 1996, “Authority, Law, and Morality” in Ethics in the Public Domain: Essays in the Morality of Law and Politics, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Teaching methods

Students are required to read the articles before the meeting, in the light of some critical questions that the teaching assistant sends them via email. During the discussion, all students are required to take part in the conversation, reconstructing the argumentative structure of the texts and assessing it critically.

Assessment methods

Oral exam. The exam will be aimed at evaluating not only the students’ knowledge of the content covered by the course but also their ability to critically think through the theoretical issues discussed in class. This means that, rather than remembering the literal content of the articles, students are expected to demonstrate that they understand the broader concepts and conceptions they use and the problems they raise.

Teaching tools

We use both a mailing list and Virtuale to share the texts of the articles to be discussed and the handouts containing questions to be discussed about them. All meetings of the group are held online via Microsoft Teams.

Office hours

See the website of Corrado Roversi