Theory of Law (dates back to code 20606)

• Year: 1
• Term: 1
• Number of ECTS credits: 6
• Student hours: 150

 

Syllabus

As the course programme indicates, its aim is to present students with the bases for understanding the problems faced in the task of interpreting and implementing the law and the essential tools for analysing some of the relationships between law and morality, in the most didactic way possible. 

Firstly, it is accepted that law is a social phenomenon, a human invention which serves two basic purposes. One is resolving conflicts of interest; the other is social coordination. The course analyses the functions of law, motivation techniques and how the law encourages and discourages types of behaviour.

Secondly, law may be understood as a normative system made up of different parts. These parts and their similarities and differences are examined.

Thirdly, the fact that law can be reconstructed in the form of a system assumes knowledge of what it is a system of and what its formal properties are, as well as how it differs from other normative systems.

Fourthly, the importance of the task of interpreting law for any legal exert is underlined, and students examine the arguments most frequently used to defend the outcome of this task.

Fifthly, the essential role played by interpretation at the stage of implementing the law is analysed, both its internal and external justification.

Finally, the different positions surrounding the question of the relationship between law and morality are critically analysed; the classic polemic between natural law and legal positivism and the concept of law.

Topic 1. Law as a social phenomenon

Topic 2. The social functions of law

Topic 3. Legal regulations

Topic 4. The legal system

Topic 5. Interpreting the law

Topic 6. Implementing the law

Topic 7. Law and morality