PHIL 430 - Philosophy of Law

Units: 3

Philosophical study of issues related to the law and legal institutions. Examines notions of the basic nature of law, its origins in society, and its validity as a system of social norms. Compares law to other normative social institutions like convention, morality, and religion. Subjects include: liberty-limiting principles; origin of legal rights; individual rights and corporate obligations to obey the law; the justification of legal punishment; problems of paternalistic interference into the lives of citizens.