Legal philosophy

You will study the major contemporary theories of law and legal reasoning (positivism, natural law, interpretivism, realism), and the main lines of debates between them. These debates concern the nature and foundations of law, the relationship between law and justice, the nature of legal reasoning and the role of value-judgments and creativity in judicial decision-making, the nature of rights and duties, and judicial activism and fidelity to law. You will also study how philosophical debates about these issues illuminate actual controversies in the practical administration of legal systems.