The Jurisprudence of Crime: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

The theoretical side of crime and justice has long been dependent on philosophical input. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the key figures were Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham. In the 20th century, Robert Nozick, Hans Kelsen, H.L.A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Sydney Morgenbesser , Harry Frankfurt, and Joel Feinberg joined the ranks. Today, the theory of crime and justice need renewed philosophical attention, particularly as it relates to the following issues: (1) the reason for the binding nature of the law; (2) the concept of sovereignty in an international legal order; (3) the concept of victimhood and the relevance of religious thinking to secular legal issues; (4) the nature of equality in punishment; (5) the basic concepts of criminal law, e.g. action, causation, intention, efficiency, consent, harm, authority, and desert, both negative and positive; and, (6) the theory of interpretation.
While modern legal education often seeks to explore some of these issues, they can never do so thoroughly without addressing and analyzing their theoretical foundations.

A major in philosophy is not required.

Readings will be drawn from the authors mentioned above and the instructor.

Students will be required to write a paper based on original research and to make a presentation in class.