Course Description

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of law - that is, problems generated by philosophical reflection on the law. Rather than trying to describe what (if anything) these problems have in common, it is better to simply provide some examples that will be discussed in class:

1) Is there a duty to obey the law? Does the fact that the law says "X" give us any reason to X?

2) Can the state be legitimate even if there is no duty to obey the law?

3) Isn't the very idea of authority incompatible with moral autonomy, that is, with the idea that one should do what one thinks is, all things considered, morally right -- and not simply act because someone tells one what to do? Isn't authority always illegitimate? 

4) Does every legal system have a sovereign, that is, a person (or group of people) who is the ultimate lawmaker? If so, who is the sovereign in the American legal system -- the people of the United States? the original ratifiers of the Constitution? the judges who interpret the Constitution? Can sovereignty be divided? Is sovereignty divided (e.g. between the federal government and the states) in the American legal system? Must the sovereign always be unconstrained by the law because he (or she or it) is the ultimate source of all law? Is there such a legally unlimited sovereign within the American legal system?

5) Is international law really law? Can international law bind the United States or does such law bind only to the extent that American law recognizes it?

6) Is the law simply whatever a court says it is?

7) What is law? Is it reducible to sociological facts (e.g. facts about relationships of power)? Is it reducible to social facts combined with morality? Is it something entirely different, neither sociological nor moral? 

8) Even if the law is not essentially moral, can't morality be incorporated within the law? Isn't that what constitutional provisions that refer to moral concepts, like the 8th and 14th Amendments, do?

9) What moral purpose does tort law perform? Does it have a moral purpose?