Philosophy of Law

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4022229DEW for working students in the 1st semester at a (D) Master - preliminary level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

Dutch

Partnership Agreement

Under interuniversity agreement for degree program

Faculty

Faculty of Law and Criminology

Department

Metajuridica

Educational team

Niels Van Dijk (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
60 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The starting point is a consideration of how law has been successively understood theoretically during the twentieth century by the Legal Realists, H.L.A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin and Bruno Latour. Despite major differences, in the work of many of these thinkers the question of the specificity of law and the demarcation of law in relation to other practices such as morality, logic, economics, sociology and politics plays an important role. In all of them, the relationship between the theory and the practice of law further plays an important role and with it the question of how the philosopher of law can best approach the practice of law in arriving at a theory about the nature of law. For this purpose, we will address the practice turn in legal theory.

This specificity of law in relation to other practices will then be illustrated through two legal cases, the classic Adolf Eichmann case in Jerusalem and the more recent so-called "SM judge" case in Belgium. Herein, we will focus on the concrete relations and demarcations between law and morality, not from a theoretical perspective, but from the way in which practicing lawyers themselves make these kinds of demarcations in the course of their legal work in dealing with conflicts.

Finally, we will explore whether the practice of law that is often time-consuming and costly still has a right to exist alongside new forms of regulation. We can think of recent debates in the regulation of, but also by new technologies (techno-regulation), spurred on by the American jurist Lawrence Lessig with his argument of law as code. These developments can be considered in the broader context of the developing relations between the practices of law, ethics, politics, science in a modern technological society. The relationships will be examined from a broadened constitutional perspective, not limited to the classical, formal-legal meaning as a text document (constitution), but which looks at the changing relationships between the state and society and important state institutions among themselves. For this, inspiration will be sought from Science, Technology in Society (STS) studies.

Additional info

Digital course materials consisting of:

Primary reference texts: (excerpts from) chapters, articles and legal rulings (required).
The powerpoint slides discussed during the lectures (required).
Secondary texts to contextualize or deepen the course topics (optional).

All study materials will be made available through the Canvas platform.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

Knowledge and Insight

Students will have a general understanding of the main (Anglo-Saxon) philosophical theories of law of the twentieth century.

Skills

Students can independently analyze and compare primary texts on philosophy of law with respect to: 1) the question of the nature of law, 2) the relations that are made between law, ethics and politics.
Students can independently illustrate and apply these theoretical insights to a legal case, understanding the facts, legal questions and doctrinal commentaries.
Students understand the role of scientific and technological developments in the construction of political and legal order. They can interpret, relate and contrast these developments from a broad constitutional perspective, inspired in part by insights from science and technology studies (STS).

Attitudes

Students are able to think critically both from within and outside the legal framework about law as a practice in modern society, against the background of developments in science and technology, and questions of ethics and politics.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Oral Exam with a relative weight of 100 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

On the oral exam, students will be asked to give well-structured and reasoned answers to open-ended questions on the different topics of the course during 15 minutes.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context