Course 2024-2025 a.y.

30611 - GENERAL JURISPRUDENCE

Department of Law

Course taught in English

Class timetable
Exam timetable

Go to class group/s: 28

BGL (9 credits - I sem. - OB | IUS/20)

Course Director:
DAMIANO CANALE

Classes: 28 (I sem.)

Instructors:
Class 28: DAMIANO CANALE

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

The expression “General Jurisprudence” usually refers to theoretical study of law, which tries to answer questions such as “What is law?”, “What distinguishes law from other social phenomena?”, “How is it the case that laws provide guidance to human behavior?”, etc. Over the past two centuries, the answers to these questions have been sought by looking at state law and the characteristics it has taken on in Western countries. This perspective no longer has a satisfactory grip on reality. Although state law is still central to our lives, its regulatory function is intertwined with that of supra-national and international legal sources. At the same time, the forms of legal regulation and planning of social life appear highly diversified and cannot be reduced to traditional, black letter law. Not to mention that different legal traditions tend to provide different answers to the question “What is law?”, to the point of casting doubt on the very idea that legality can be reduced to a set of universal features common to all polities that ever existed and will exist in the future. The course aims to reconstruct these different constellations of problems in order to provide students with an introductory yet critical understanding of contemporary law, legal systems, and the forms of legality characterizing them.

CONTENT SUMMARY

General Part

- What is General Jurisprudence All About?

- Mapping the Law: Legal Families, Traditions and Concepts

- Legal Monism vs. Legal Pluralism

Special Part

- Constitutional Democracy: Concept and Foundations

- The Core Principles: Democratic Representation, Separation of Powers, and the Rule of Law

- A Focus on the Rule of Law: Definition, Justification and Contemporary Challenges

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

General Part:

- provide a picture of the main problems of general jurisprudence, and explain the way in which they have been addressed over the past two centuries in the Western legal tradition.

- recognize a legal family or tradition, and use fundamental legal concepts such as obligation, right, duty, power, legislation, adjudication, legal system.

- address the problems that different basic conceptions of legal normativity can give rise to in the global scenario.

Special Part:

- describe the basic legal and political structure of modern constitutional democracies.

- explain the principles that underlie this structure and the relationships (and tensions) among them.

- address the main conceptual and normative issues raised by the ideal of the rule of law.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

General Part:

- use theoretical legal vocabulary and assess the different current standpoints on the nature of law.

- properly apply normative legal concepts and discuss their social cultural roots.

- argue in favor and against the pluralistic conceptions of legality.

Special Part:

- compare current constitutional arrangements around the world in the light of normative models and principles.

- critically apply the concepts of ‘rule of law’, ‘democracy’, ‘separation of powers’ to real-life or hypothetical scenarios.

Teaching methods

Lectures
Collaborative Works / Assignments

DETAILS

Case studies will be conducted in class. They will take place in two forms. In the first form, the entire class will be assigned a relevant case/scenario/problem to be analysed on the basis of the knowledge and understanding acquired during the module, leaving students the choice to work through it either collaboratively or individually. Then, a general discussion of the students’ findings will take place in class, with peer questioning and feedback. In the second form, students will be divided into groups and each group will be assigned a relevant case/scenario/problem to be analysed on the basis of the knowledge and understanding acquired during the module. Then each group of students will be assigned a slot to present their findings to the rest of the cohort.

Assessment methods

	Continuous assessment	Partial exams	General exam
Written individual exam (traditional/online)		x	x
Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)	x
Peer evaluation	x

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Assessment methods are based on three elements:

Group Assignment and presentation 1: 20%

Midterm exam: 30%

Group assignment and presentation 2: 20%

Final exam: 30%

As for the first and second assignments, the attending students will be divided into groups and each group will be requested to present and discuss a case in class related to the content of the course. The case-study will be assigned to the groups at the beginning of each module of the course. The presentation and discussion of the cases will be used to verify the students' ability to apply the knowledge developed during the course, and to take a critical viewpoint with respect to the issues the considered case is about.

Both the midterm and final exam will be held in written form. The midterm exam will be made up of 3 open-ended questions whereas the final exam will be composed by 2 open-ended questions. The written exams will be used to assess the comprehension of relevant legal concepts, the student’s ability to analyze a given theoretical subject, and to address real or hypothetical scenarios.

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The assessment of non-attending students will be based on a final written exam. The exam is made up by 4 open-ended questions which cover both the general and the special parts of the course. The exam will be used to assess the student’s understanding and knowledge of the textbook and teaching materials, the mastery of the relevant legal concepts, and the ability to analyze the theoretical and practical legal issues the course is about.

Teaching materials

ATTENDING STUDENTS

W Twinning, General Jurisprudence: Understanding the Law from a Global Perspective (CUP 2009), Ch. 1-4.

B Tamanaha, Legal Pluralism Explained: History, Theory, Consequences (OUP 2021), Ch. 4.

P Sandro, The Making of Constitutional Democracy: From Creation to Application of Law (Hart Pub 2022), Ch. 1, 2, and 7.

Case-studies (including articles and reports) discussed in class and uploaded on the Blackboard platform.

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

W Twinning, General Jurisprudence: Understanding the Law from a Global Perspective (CUP 2009), Ch. 1-6.

B Tamanaha, Legal Pluralism Explained: History, Theory, Consequences (OUP 2021), Ch. 4-5.

P Sandro, The Making of Constitutional Democracy: From Creation to Application of Law (Hart Pub 2022), Ch. 1, 2, and 7.

Last change 27/05/2024 16:05