Legal Theory Course Summary

Description

Legal theory is principally about knowing a topic well and being able to critically compare theorists. I have attached my full 41 pages of notes. A sample of the first 15 pages is provided. Good Luck Intro – 24/7/17 1 Admin 1 What is legal theory? 1 Why are we studying it? 1 Law and Politics – 28/7 1 Lecture 1 recap 1 Big Question (keep separate- be explicit) 1 Politics vs Law 2 Focus 2 Legal positivist (black letter) … Apolitical View … they focus on ‘what is law’, not what ‘ought to be law’ 2 Naturalist Anti-Positivism 2 Summary 3 Law and Art – 31/7 3 Why does art matter? 4 Blind justice 4 Imagination / imaginary / the imagined 4 Power of images 4 Law is art … Cauduro’s art 4 Focus 5 Law and History – 5 Assumptions behind the rule of law 5 Governor Davy’s proclamation – image 5 Legal positivism – 6 Legal positivism II …. 7 Key positivists 7 Legal positivism III 9 Hart 9 Hart’s Critique of Austin 9 Harts view of law 9 Waldron (need to do from slides) 10 Hart fuller debate (1) … 10 Hart fuller debate (II) … 11 Dworkin’s Anti-Positivism: Law as Integrity …. 13 Eisenberg – theory of the common law 15 Barron – Foucault, power and law … 15 Semester 1 recap 16 What ought the law be? …. 16 The mythology of the rule of law 19 Rule of law (global south) 23 Global South 23 Rights Discourse … 25 Rights Discourse and its critics II … 27 Minority rights … 29 Minority rights Part II 32 Democracy and Constitutional Rights 34 Response to the Democratic Critique of Judicial Review … 36 Eisgruber’s work 36 Goldsworthy 36 Recap lecture … 36