Philosophy of law [DRHDB220]

Learning outcomes

Legal skills • Possess the conceptual tools to enable the student to grasp the subject of study and the specific social role of the lawyer • Master the fundamentals of legal thought over time • Master the basics of critical thinking about the law Cross-cutting competences • Ability to communicate, orally and in writing, an idea, a reasoning, or the fruit of personal research • Ability to defend a point of view in an argumentative manner • Mastery of the French language as a tool for legal thinking

Objectives

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the conceptual tools necessary for a personal and critical approach to the legal phenomenon. What are the essential characteristics of law? What is its relationship with the notion of justice? And with morality and politics? What is the specific social role of the lawyer? These seemingly simple questions are in fact extremely complex and have been answered in different ways throughout history. The course also aims to provide an overview of the main theories of the perception of the legal phenomenon in terms of its sources, legitimacy, purpose, methods and content.

Content

A long preamble presents the object, the method, the nature and the interest of the philosophy of law, before proposing some tracks of distinction between law, morals, politics and religion. Then, the course summons some authors particularly representative of different conceptions of law. The historical perspective is not adopted as an end in itself, but as a means to nourish a systematic reflection on the great coordinates of the legal phenomenon. The student is invited to a journey to the heart of the legal activity in order to try to grasp what is at stake and understand how the notions of law, justice and nature are articulated.