This year long seminar will read and discuss heavily edited texts by eleven authors whose reflections on law have had a deep influence on modern legal thought. These are Bentham, Kant, Hegel, Savigny, Marx, Jhering, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Weber, Schmitt and Kelsen. The seminar will first of all be concerned with developing clear and accurate interpretations of the texts. A second focus will be on the authors’ interventions in legal theory as situated in the social and political context of their times. A third will be identifying the development and subsequent transformation of new modes of legal reasoning, as bearing on law as a supposedly autonomous discipline.
Note:
The credit breakdown for this seminar is as follows: two total credits with one credit awarded in the fall and one credit awarded in the spring.
The seminar will meet for two hours from October 23 - 13 in the fall. Spring meeting dates are TBD. Reactions papers and a twenty page final paper will be required.
Drop Deadline: October 24, 2013
