Undergraduate

Bachelor of Laws (LLB)

Laws modules

Jurisprudence and legal theory [2670005]
(amended syllabus)

The nature of jurisprudence: methodology, analysis, theory and the idea of definition, the relevance of language and ideology.
Legal positivism and its critics: the command theory, Hart-Fuller debate, Dworkin's criticism of positivism, Kelsen (including the use of Kelsenian principles in revolution cases), Raz's theory of law.
Moral theory and the law: the history of natural law, Finnis's natural law theory, liberalism and the Hart-Devlin debate, moral rights, utilitarianism and its critics, utilitarianism and the economic analysis of law.
Legal reasoning: Dworkin's theory of law as integrity, Dworkin's methodology, practical reasoning, Hohfeld's analysis of legal rights.
Social theory and critical accounts of law, including the American Critical Legal Studies movement, Marxist theories of law and state, feminist jurisprudence.
A study in depth of a text prescribed by the examiners on which there will be one compulsory question in the examination. For 2005 and 2006 the prescribed text is Hart, HLA, The Concept of Law (second edition).