Traditions of Legal Inquiry (P02550)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LAW-P-P02550

Legal concepts change through time as a result of reflection on the appropriateness of conceptual structures to help regulate and shape the social world. That reflection is carried out in different forms and at a different pace by courts, legal doctrine and legal theorists. Theoretical reflection and historical research are, therefore, intertwined as complementary aspects of any investigation on the foundations of any given legal concept, including the concept of law. The idea of legal traditions of rational inquiry brings that connection between legal theory and legal history home.
The course aims at investigating precisely what a tradition of rational inquiry is and also at identifying paradigmatic examples of rational traditions of legal inquiry

? Keywords : Legal Traditions
Legal History
Rational Tradition
Legal Theory

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Law, (School of Law, Schedule F)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
23/09/2008	14:00	15:50	Moot Court Room, Old College	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The course will help students develop:
(a) the ability to think law on a more abstract level in such a way as to help both legal interpretation of positive law and the criticism of positive law
(b) the ability to understand the interconnections between rationality and history in the particular context of a legal investigation
(c) skills of critical and contextual analysis of theoretical and historical texts
(d) written and oral skills, particularly in relation to building arguments about the best historical and theoretical interpretation of a particular text.