Philosophy and Politics of Law

The course has two learning objectives. The first objective is to provide students with knowledge of the main legal concepts as elaborated in legal theory. The second objective is to introduce to the philosophical analysis of different conceptions of freedom in relation to law, and to consider their implications for the politics of law, with special reference to the case law of constitutional and supranational courts.

At the end of the course students should have acquired:
- knowledge of the main concepts, categories and distinctions of legal language with special reference to contemporary legal systems and the capability to use them properly;
- understanding of central issues in the theoretical reflection on law;
- understanding of the different forms of legal action and of their link with political objectives and strategies and with different conceptions of justice;
- capability to apply the concepts elaborated in the theoretical reflection on law to the analysis of norms and cases and to associate them to different options as regards the politics of law;
- capability of reading and analysing texts in normative theory;
- capability to compare and discuss different normative positions.