CENTRAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LAW
JURISPRUDENCE I (LAW 401) & II (LAW 402) COURSE OUTLINE
2024/2025
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The word jurisprudence originates from the Latin term “juris prudentia”, which means "the
study, knowledge, or science of law." Controversy surrounds not only the acceptability of the
many attempts made to define jurisprudence; the very possibility of producing a precise
definition is challenged, as is the validity of the defining process. Lee Loevinger reminds us:
‘The unanswerable questions of life belong to the realm of philosophy, and jurisprudence is the
philosophy of law.’
The vocabulary of jurisprudence is eclectic, drawn from political science, economics, social
theory and legal philosophy and procedure. The nature of the facts described by words is to be
taken into account by the jurist. The emotive nature or words must not be overlooked. Hart
stresses the need to study legal words in their context. Brenda Danet suggests that the carefully
restricted nature of legal language tends to vitiate communication.
Jurisprudence seems to answer for example the following fundamental questions about law:
What is law?
What is the purpose of law?
Does law consist merely of rules?
Can anything be law?
What has law to do with justice? or morality or democracy.
What makes a law valid?
Do we have a duty to obey the law?
Jurisprudence may also be:
(a) a study of different schools of legal philosophy, and how each affects judicial decision
making.
(b) The knowledge of Law as a science, combined with the art or practical habit or skill of
applying it.
(c) Legislation – the science of what ought to be done towards making good laws, combined
with the art of doing it.
This course intends to introduce students to the following schools of jurisprudence:
Natural law
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Legal Positivism
Identification with the Vulnerable
Historical School: Tradition
Legal Realism
Cost Benefit Analysis
Jurisprudence is also categorized as descriptive; normative; and critical legal theory.
Descriptive legal theory seeks to explain what the law is, and why and its consequences;
Normative legal theories, on the other hand, are concerned with what the law ought to be. Put
differently, descriptive legal theories are about facts; normative legal theories are about
values. Critical legal theory questions the very foundation of jurisprudence.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the functions of law in society with particular reference to the relations of law and
power, and the concepts and techniques characteristically used in the operations of developed
legal systems.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completing this course the student should be able to:
- Apply Philosophical and Sociological Theories and Methodologies to problems of and about
the law.
- Know the different schools of jurisprudence, and how each affects judicial decision making.
- What is the nature of law and what does it mean to say a law exists?
- How do lawyers reason, is there a special type of legal reasoning?
- What is the relationship between law and morality?
COURSE METHODOLOGY
- Lectures, Videos & Case Studies.
Course Schedule — JURISPRUDENCE I
2
Topic Week Main Text
3
1-3 Course Reader (Notes)
Introduction to Jurisprudence
- What is Law
- What is Philosophy
Founders of the Western Tradition Week Course Reader (Notes)
-Plato, Aristotle, Cicero 4-5
- Hobbes, Locke, Rouseau
Natural Law & The Nature of law Week Course Reader (Notes)
-Aquinas & Neo-Scholasticism 6
-Rev. Martin Luther King & Thomas
Jefferson
- Grotius & Puffendorf
- Relationship between Natural Law &
Customary Law
- Jeremy Bentham & Utilitarianism
- Resurgence of Natural Law Thinking
Natural Law & Human Rights
-Natural Law and Judges
Legal Positivism Week Course Reader (Notes)
- Hart’s Concept of Law 7
- Austin
- Kelson
- The Hart-Fuller Debate
- The Hart Devlin Debate
Legal Realism Week
8 Course Reader (Notes)
-American (Llewellyn, Dewy, James,
Holmes, Frank and Gray).
-Scandinavian (Hagerstrom, Olivecrona
& Ross)
The Historical School
4
- Doctrine of Stare Decisis Week
- Savigny & Maine 9 Course Reader (Notes)
- Marxist Approach (Karl Marx)
- Sociological Approach (Weber &
Pound)
Week Course Reader (Notes)
Ronald Dworkin: Law as Integrity 10
John Rawls : Justice Theory
Week Course Reader (Notes)
The Philosophy of Language and Legal 11
Interpretation
Course Schedule — JURISPRUDENCE II
Topic Week Main Text
1
Legal Realism
-American (Llewellyn, Dewy, James,
Holmes, Frank and Gray). Course Reader (Notes)
5
-Scandinavian (Hagerstrom, Olivecrona
& Ross)
Week Course Reader (Notes)
2
Legal Reasoning About Facts and
Probability Theory
- Bayes Theorem
- The Gate Crusher Paradox
- Argument about Conjunction
- The Problem of Reasonable Doubt
- Criticism by David Hodgson
- What Principles ought to guide
legal reasoning
Week Course Reader (Notes)
3
Philosophy of Tort Law/Economic
Analysis
- The Market Principle and Political
Economy
- Market Failure
- Prisoner’s Dilemma
- Posner’s Theory & Critique
- Corrective Justice
- Justice and Proportionality
Week Course Reader (Notes)
4
Philosophy of Contract Law
- Why Contracts
- Ethical and Moral Dimensions
- Freedom of Contract
Week Course Reader (Notes)
5
The Concept of Property
- Utilitarian Arguments
- Private Property as Liberty
- First Acquisition Argument
- Locke’s labor Theory of Value
- Issues with Locke’s Argument
- Ownership of One’s Body & Mind
6
(Arguments)
- Locke & Ownership of Land
- Justifying Inheritance
- Righting Historical Wrongs
- New Issues in Property Concept
Course Reader (Notes)
Theories of Political Obligation Week
- The argument from Plato’s Crito 6
- Arguments from Hobbes Leviathan
- Locke’s Arguments
- Is Democracy a good Justification
for an Obligation to obey the law
- Condorcet’s Jury Theorem
- Robert Dahl/Affected Interest
Principle
- John Rawls
- Communitarian Philosophy
Course Reader (Notes)
Crime and Punishment Week
- Why do we punish people 7
- The Problem of Moral luck /Free
Will
- The Justification of Punishment
- Mixed Theories of Punishment
- Teleological Theories of
Punishment
- Punishment, Time & Personal
Identity
- Role of Memory Loss
The Radical Critique/Post CLS Week
Movement. 8 Course Reader (Notes)
- The Critical legal Studies
Movement (CLS)
- The Concept of Ideology
Week Course Reader (Notes)
9
Theories of
Rights/Liberty/Constitutionalism
-John Stuart Mills; Dworkin, John
Rawls
7
-Equality/Equal Opportunity
-
Adjudication & Legal Reasoning Week
10
The Tools of Argument for Lawyers
-Legal Epistemology
-Legal Thinking
Arguing about Facts/Texts/Precedent
-Rhetorical Tricks/Substantive
Responsibility/Reasoned Persuasion
Challenging the law Week Course Reader (Notes)
Putting legal Roles to question 11
Against the roles of subject:
Philosophical Anarchism
Against the role of Legislator: Marxism,
Feminist Jurisprudence Week
-LGBT Jurisprudence 12
Feminism Legal Theory, Critical Race
Theory
Critical Legal Theory
GRADING POLICY
Class Participation - 10%
Assignment / Term Paper/Quizzes - 20%
Final Exam - 70%
REFERENCE TEXTS
1. Golding, Martin & Edmundso, (2005) The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Law and Legal
Theory, Blackwell Publishing
2. Murphy, Mark, (2006) Philosophy of Law: The Fundamentals, Blackwell Publishing
3. Offei, S, (2013) Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy, 3rd Edition
4. Sinha, Surya Prakesh, (1993) Jurisprudence: Legal Philosophy, West Publishing
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5. Wacks, Raymond, (2015) Understanding Jurisprudence, Oxford University Press
6. Trachtman, Joel P., (2013) The Tools of Argument, How the best lawyers think, argue , and
win, CreateSpace Independent Publishing
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING
ARISTOTLE: Politics. London 1981.
ARISTOTLE: Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford 1908.
AUSTIN, J.: The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832) and The Uses of the
Study of Jurisprudence (1863). Indianopolis/ Cambridge 1954.
BENTHAM, J.: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. 1781.
BENTHAM, J.: Of Laws in General. London 1970.
BIX, B.: Jurisprudence: Theory and Context. London 1999 (Fourth Edition 2006).
BODENHEIMER, E.: Jurisprudence. The Philosophy and Method of the Law.
Cambridge (Mass.) – London 1962.
DWORKIN, R.M.: Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge (Mass.) 1999.
DWORKIN, R. M.: Law’s Empire. London 1986.
DWORKIN, R. M.: A Matter of Principle 1985.
DWORKIN, R. M.: Justice in Robes. Cambridge (Mass.) - London 2006.
FULLER, Lon L.: Morality of Law. New Haven 1969.
HARRIS, J. W.: Law and Legal Science. Oxford 1979.
HART, H. L. A.: The Concept of Law. Oxford 1961 (Second Edition, 1994).
HART, H. L. A.: Law, Liberty and Morality. London 1963.
HUME, D.: Political Essays. Cambridge 1994.
HOBBES, T.: Leviathan. Cambridge 1996.
KELSEN, H.: Pure Theory of Law. Berkeley 1967.
LOCKE, J.: Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge – New York – Port Chester –
Melbourne – Sydney 1960.
MacCORMICK, N.: Institutions of Law. Oxford – New York 2007.
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McCOUBREY, H. – WHITE, N. D.: Textbook on Jurisprudence. London 1993.
PLATO: The Laws. London 1970.
PLATO: The Republic. London 1987.
RADBRUCH, G.: Rechtsphilosophie. Studienausgabe. Heidelberg 1999.
RAWLS, J.: A Theory of Justice. Oxford 1972.
RAZ, J.: The Authority of Law. Essays on Law and Morality. Oxford 1979.
RIDDALL, J. G.: Jurisprudence. London, Boston, etc. 1991.
ROUSSEAU, J.-J.: The Social Contract. Harmondsworth 1968.
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