PHIL5500 · Philosophy
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
This course aims to provide an overview of a number of core debates in contemporary philosophy of law. The primary concern will be to examine the relation between legal validity and the moral normativity of the law, that is, answers to the questions 'What is the law?' and 'Is there a (moral) duty to obey the law?' In addition to these more general questions, we will focus on several more specific questions pertaining to constitutionalism, including 'What is the relationship between a constitution and the rule of law?', 'What is the ground of judicial review?' and 'What connection, if any, is there between questions of legal theory and broader debates in contemporary political philosophy?'
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.0 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.6 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.3 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.3 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Fall 2024
1 sectionFall 2023
1 sectionFall 2022
1 sectionFall 2021
1 sectionFall 2020
1 section