LAW 2526 - Legal Theory

This course explores jurisprudence, which takes as its focus the philosophy and theory of law. It explores the answers that have been offered to two major questions: what is law, and what ought law to be. The major schools of thought in relation to the nature of law include natural law, analytic jurisprudence, legal positivism, historical jurisprudence, sociological jurisprudence, legal realism, critical legal studies, interpretivism, therapeutic jurisprudence, and general (global) jurisprudence. In relation to what law ought to be (normative jurisprudence), major schools of thought include virtue jurisprudence, deontology, utilitarianism, and the work of John Rawls.