UiB : Juridisk Fakultet : Reglementer : Studieplan for mastergradsstudiet

JUS354 - Legal philosophy (30 ECTS-credits)

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Synne Sæther Mæhle

Language of Instruction: English

Content and Objectives:
The central theme of this course is the discourse between various schools of legal positivism and legal realism on one hand, and ideas of natural law as a basis for or and integrated element in legal thinking, on the other. One point of vantage is the concept of a non-political autonomous law as formulated by Montesquieu, the classical law positivism. This is confronted with on one hand descriptive theories viewing the legal system as a specialized system of coercion, and jurisprudence as a description of the actual behaviour of officials, and normative theories integrating value based judgement as an element in legal reasoning on the other.

An important element in this debate is the development of legal realism particularly in American and Scandinavian legal thinking. These positions are then confronted with the theory of Jürgen Habermas on the communicative room as the framewrok for the legal discourse and basic democrati principles as delimitation of legitimate jurisprudence, and with the points of view of Niklas Luhmann on the independent and functional nature of law, on feedback mechanisms in social systems, and on the relationship between the development of law and the differentiation processes in modern societies. The course then introduces a hermeneutic understanding of the relationship between law as an expression of meaning and the structure and basic moral values of the society in which it operates. Finally we consider the implications of this concept of law for the discussion on the unity of law within a single nation, and the consequences for the concept of law of the rapid developments in international and transnational law, and the growing importance of international and transnational adjudication.

Literature:

Assessment/Examination Format:
Teaching language is English. Through the course the students write two term papers. Grades are given on the basis of a two week take home exam and a final oral examination.

Sist oppdatert 13.03.2007 av AT Kommentarer til denne siden.