Undergraduate Course: Jurisprudence (LAWS08129)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Law |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course studies law as an institutional normative order within a philosophical and sociological context. Firstly it asks how law is to be seen as a system. What does it mean to say that the law is normative and does that presuppose a particular standard of behaviour? How does law and morality relate to each other, and what does this mean for the administration of justice, both in courts and the law making process? Secondly it looks at concepts within the law such as property, contract, responsibility and critically analyses them within a philosophical and sociological context, with special emphasis on theories from law and economics, Marxist and feminist legal critiques. Students will learn how jurisprudential theories both explain and influence legal practice, in particular in ethically controversial situations. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Legal Reasoning and Legal System (LAWS08106)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | This course is only open to visiting students coming through a direct exchange with the School of Law (this includes Erasmus students on a Law Exchange). |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Sources of Law:
The students will be introduced to some of the classic writings in the philosophy of law, together with texts from the most contemporary jurisprudential debates. Students will reflect on how key legal concepts and ideas are shaped by historical, societal, economic and ethical considerations. Key concepts such as (legal) personhood, the role of contracts and free markets in modern societies, property and crimes against person and property will be analysed from economic, sociological, psychological, ethical and legal-theoretical perspectives. As several of the theorists come from outside the Scottish legal system, and are influenced in their thinking by their domestic legal system, students will at the same time be exposed to the similarities and differences that some other legal systems display in conceptualising and thinking about these core concepts. |
Assessment Information
Take home exam over 48 hours - 70%
Unseen exam 30% (1 hour)
This exam must be taken on 10 December 2012. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Students will develop research skill to locate jurisprudential material across a variety of media, from traditional books and journals to a variety of digital resources, including academic blogs, newsgroups and discussion lists, social media and wikis. They will learn to use a variety of technological tools to communicate abstract ideas concisely, and contributing in this way to their own digital resources, e.g. through sharing of links through social media like Delicious, as part of a tutorial exercise. They will learn to form rational opinions in emotionally charged debates where diametrically opposed ethical commitments clash, form their own solution and learn to support it with intersubjectively valid arguments. |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
2 lectures per week, 5 tutorials |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Neil Walker
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Heather Haig
Tel: (0131 6)50 2053
Email: |
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