Instructional goals
Understanding the uniqueness of the legal method.
Learning the main legal categories of legal science (right; power; obligation; coercion).
To raise critical awareness about contemporary legal issues.
To develop logical and rhetorical skills in legal reasoning.
Prerequisites
Basic skills required by the degree course
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: The course will provide – through course attendance and interactive activities – basic knowledges about the methodology of legal science, including legal categories and legal reasoning.
Applying knowledge and understanding: The students will be able to detect all the philosophical implications arising from legal problems, as well as the formal structure of the legal reasoning. These skills will be tested during the oral exam, which will take place at the end of the course.
Making judgements: The students, thanks to the methodological tools acquired during the classes, will be able to evaluate autonomously the topics discussed during the classes. Also, they will be able to frame from a philosophical standpoint the main theoretical legal problems, elicited by the ongoing challenges the contemporary legal systems need to face. Students’ critical thinking will be enhanced also through short essays uploaded on the institutional website (LUISSlearn).
Communications Skills: This course will provide the students with the major terms and concepts in legal theory. The students will also be required to argue in a rhetorical-oriented way. These skills will be enhanced during exercitations and talks, where students will be asked to debate choosing one side.
Learning skills: Students will be able to recognize the different methodological perspectives underlying the different approaches of law. Students will be able to acknowledge the relationship between the nature of law on the one hand and legal doctrines and institutions on the other, both in their legal studies and in their professional life.
Course Contents
Legal method
Fundamental legal concepts
Interpretation and argumentation in law.
Reference Books
G. Carcaterra, Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica. Seconda edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2012.
A. Punzi, Prudentia iuris, Seconda edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2016.
A. Punzi (a cura di), Parole del diritto, Giappichelli, Torino 2019.
Teaching Methods
Teaching will include:
Lectures;
presentations made by students;
film and documentary visions;
cases analysis.
Teaching activities will be supported by the use of digital taching tools available in the LUISS learn platform:
LUISS learn wiki (collaboration tool)
LUISS learn forum (discussion & practice tool)
LUISS learn chat (discussion & practice tool)
LUISS learn forum (discussion & practice tool)
Assessment Method
The exam will be an oral examination, with pre-term written examinations. Students will be encouraged to present written essays and to intervene during the classes.
Thesis assignment criteria
Manifestation of interest
Does the syllabus cover sustainability topics?
Yes
Week 1 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
The legal method and the natural method. Historical remarks.
Session 1/On campus:
The legal method and the natural method. Historical remarks. (interactive discussion)
Session 2/On campus:
Legal Methodology and conceptions of law
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Reference books:
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 1-17;
Parole del diritto: voce Scienza e diritto; filosofia e giurisprudenza
Prudentia iuris pp. 4-8
Week 2 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Legal positivism:
History
Differences
Session 1/On campus:
Contemporary insights: obedience vs. conscience; the reasons for obedience
(interactive discussion)
Session 2/On campus:
Development of legal normativism
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 9-22
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 17-32
Week 3 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
The Natural law renaissance – The Nurberg Trial
Obedience vs. conscience: the reasons for conscience
The Natural law theories
Session 1/On campus:
The concepts of natural law:
Ancient
Medieval
Modern
Session 2/On campus:
Subjective rights
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 23-34
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 11-13
Parole del diritto: voce Diritto soggettivo
Week 4 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
The Scandinavian Realism
Session 1/On campus:
The Americal legal realism
Session 2/On campus:
The sociological conceptions of law:
The theory of institution (interactive discussion)
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 58-70
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 13-15
Week 5 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Realistic normativism
Values and limits of legal certainty
Session 1/On campus:
law, morality, justice. The problem of ideology
Session 2/On campus:
The normative systems and the norms. Th fundamental deontic concepts
(interactive discussion)
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Reference books:
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: p. 35-45
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp.16-29
Prudentia iuris: pp.35-57
Week 6 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Imperativism
Formalism: The normative sense of law.
Law as reality and as ideology
Session 1/On campus:
The normative theory of law
Session 2/On campus:
The first level norms (interactive discussion)
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Reference books:
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: 45-53
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 21-34
Week 7 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
State and sovereignty
Session 1/On campus:
State of Exception
Session 2/On campus:
The second level norms: the norms of validity
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Reference books:
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: 53-77
Prudentia iuris: pp. 70-82
Parole del diritto: voce Sovranità; eccezione
Week 8 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Rules and principles
Session 1/On campus:
The normative theory of law beyond positive law
Session 2/On campus:
The costitutive norms
the performatives
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Reference books:
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: 89-126
Prudentia iuris: pp 83-97
Presupposti e strumenti: pp. 35-41
Week 9 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Law beyond the state
Session 1/On campus:
Law beyond the state
Session 2/On campus:
Legal reasoning
Logic and Rhetoric
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 98-109
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 127-158
Week 10 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Post national law between equality and difference
Session 1/On campus:
primary rules and secondary rules
Session 2/On campus:
Inductive and deductive reasoning
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 110-126
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 159-184
Week 11 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Law as a social technique
Public vs. private
Session 1/On campus:
Law as a social technique
(2)
Session 2/On campus:
The legal issue
The factual issue
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Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 127-137
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp 185-248
Week 12 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Session 1/On-line:
Public discours and its limits
Session 1/On campus:
Truth and Democracy
Session 2/On campus:
The judjment
Reference books:
Prudentia iuris: pp. 138-149
Presupposti e strumenti della scienza giuridica: pp. 249-262
Parole del diritto: voce Giudizio