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?

2) The law often (perhaps always) claims authority over citizens. Indeed authority may be a condition for the existence of law. But 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? And if it is, doesn't that mean law cannot exist?

3) 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?

4) Can sovereignty be divided? Is sovereignty divided (e.g. between the federal government and the states) in the American legal system?

5) 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?

6) 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?

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

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