PHIL 311 – Syllabus Philosophy of Law Notes A Short Explainer About Office Hours GMU Blackboard Tom's Office Hours: T Th 1:30pm-2:30pm and by appt., Robinson B443 Philosophy of Law Reading Schedule Week Beginning: Day Topic Reading Assignment 25-Aug Tuesday Introduction Thursday Positivism: Command View Austin, "The Province of Jurisprudence" 2-Sep Tuesday Positivism: Primary & Secondary Rules Hart, The Concept of Law (selections) Thursday Positivism: Primary & Secondary Rules Hart, The Concept of Law (selections) 9-Sep Tuesday Positivism: Primary & Secondary Rules Hart, The Concept of Law (selections) Thursday Natural Law: Classical Formulation Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Read the sections titled Question 90 and Question 94) 16-Sep Tuesday Natural Law: Classical Formulation Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Read the sections titled Question 90 and Question 94) Thursday Natural Law: Contemporary Formulations Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (selections) 23-Sep Tuesday Natural Law: Contemporary Formulations Murphy, "Natural Law Jurisprudence" Thursday Natural Law: Rule of Law View Fuller, "Eight Ways to Fail to Make Law" 29-Sep Tuesday Natural Law: Rule of Law View Fuller, "Eight Ways to Fail to Make Law" Thursday Economic View Posner, "Values and Consequences" 7-Oct Tuesday Integrity View Dworkin, Law’s Empire (selections) Thursday Legal Realism Holmes, "The Path of the Law" (esp. 457-468); Frank, Law and the Modern Mind, Chapter 5 14-Oct Tuesday Fall Break - No Class Thursday Critical Legal Studies Kennedy, The Distinction Between Adjudication and Legislation 21-Oct Tuesday MIDTERM - October 22 On material covered before fall break. Thursday Critical Race Theory Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex" 28-Oct Tuesday Critical Race Theory Bell, "Racial Realism" Thursday The New Jim Crow Alexander, "The Color of Justice," The New Jim Crow, Chapter 3 4-Nov Tuesday Feminist Critics Smith, "Four Themes in Feminist Legal Theory: Difference, Dominance, Domesticity, and Denial" Thursday Feminist Critics MacKinnon, "Sexual Harassment: Its First Decade in Court" 11-Nov Tuesday Is there a duty to obey the law?? Smith, "Is There a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law?" Thursday Sure there is… Rawls, "Legal Obligation and the Duty of Fair Play" 18-Nov Tuesday But... Shelby, "Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto" Thursday King, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"; Rawls, "The Justification of Civil Disobedience" 25-Nov Tuesday Violence Democracy Now clip on Dan Berrigan; Morreal, "The Justifiability of Violent Civil Disobedience" Thursday THANKSGIVING 2-Dec Tuesday Originalism Scalia, "Common Law Courts in a Civil Law System" Thursday And its Discontents Dworkin, "Comments on Scalia"; Scalia, "Response" (pp. 144-149) 12-Dec Thursday FINAL EXAM 1:30-4:15 PM