Course: Jurisprudence: Introduction to the Philosophy of Law

How should society decide what their laws and rules are like? What should matter to these important social choices? This is what normative theory helps us explore. Normative statements make …

We saw in the last activity that one critique of command theory is that it can’t explain how the law presents itself as a reason for following it. H.L.A. Hart …

Now that you have heard about the R v BM [2018] case and formed your own impression of it, we can examine one of the core issues that it raises. …

To wrap up our economic analysis of law week, we’ll see how the economic analyst might tackle a fundamental contract law issue, contrasting it with the ‘traditional’ way of tackling …

Neuroscience is often regarded as a field that can contribute to the development of law, especially criminal law. One focus is the insanity defence. The insanity defence is used to …

One critique of command theory comes from thinking about the difference between habit and reasons. Do we follow law just because we have a habit of doing so, or do …

What do you do when the law runs out? Jurisprudence is the study of the theory behind the law. You might wonder, ‘Why bother with the theory behind the law? …