Theoretical and Methodological Questions (5cr)

Evaluation scale

H-5

Accomplishment methods

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Location and time

Autumn 2025 – Sessions will take place during October and November, with final assignments due by mid-December.

Mode of Delivery: Blended learning: Includes both in-person seminars and online sessions (Zoom), supplemented by Moodle resources and recordings.

Materials

Foundational Jurisprudence and Modern Classics

Hart, H.L.A. (1961). The Concept of Law. Oxford University Press.

Fuller, L. L. (1964). The Morality of Law. Yale University Press.

Dworkin, R. (1986). Law’s Empire. Harvard University Press.

Raz, J. (1979). The Authority of Law. Oxford University Press.

Finnis, J. (1980). Natural Law and Natural Rights. Oxford University Press.

 

Continental and Critical Thought

Hegel, G.W.F. (1977). Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford University Press.

Arendt, H. (1976). The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt.

Benjamin, W. (1986). “Critique of Violence,” in Reflections. Schocken Books.

Deleuze, G. (1994). Difference and Repetition. Columbia University Press.

Schmitt, C. (2005). Political Theology.

Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: A Selection. W. W. Norton.

 

Contemporary Engagements

Abbott, M. (2008). “The Creature before the Law.” Theory Critique.

Swiffen, A. (2018). Walter Benjamin’s Concept of Law.

Honneth, A. (1997). “Recognition and Moral Obligation.” Social Research, 64(1).

Aarnio, A. (1987). Reason and Authority. Reidel.

Alexy, R. (1989). A Theory of Legal Argumentation: The Theory of Rational Discourse as Theory of Legal Justification. Oxford University Press.

Alexy, R. (2000). On the Structure of Legal Principles. Ratio Juris, 13.

 

Supplementary & Thematic

Searle, J. (2009). Making the Social World. Oxford University Press.

Postema, G. (2011). Legal Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. Springer.

Nussbaum, M. (1997). “Capabilities and Human Rights.” Fordham Law Review.

Teaching methods

Course Description
This compulsory course introduces doctoral researchers in law to foundational and advanced debates in legal theory and methodology. It focuses on the conceptual architecture of legal thought and the philosophical presuppositions embedded in legal narratives, institutions, and discourses. Special emphasis is placed on the distinction and tension between the rule of law and the rule of right, between formal legality and material justice, and on the critical interrogation of legality’s philosophical legitimacy.

Tracing the historical development of legal theory from Enlightenment rationalism to post-structuralist critique, the course covers selectively both the Anglo-American and Continental traditions, from the analytical to the critical. Figures studied include Kant, Hegel, Hume, Durkheim, Austin, Hart, Fuller, Dworkin, Rawls, Kelsen, Raz, Schmitt, Benjamin, Deleuze, Arendt, and representatives of feminist, Marxist, and postmodern legal theory.

A central aim of the course is to encourage reflection on legal theory as a conceptual and narrative framework - not merely as a collection of doctrines or principles, but as a mode of world-making and a structure of justification that shapes legal reality itself.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Identify key theoretical paradigms in legal and political thought and understand their development and transformations over time.
- Analyze the distinction between normativity and legality, legality and legitimacy, and rule of law and rule of right.
- Interpret the role of legal theory as a narrative device that constructs meaning, justification, and authority.
- Position their own research within these debates with philosophical awareness and methodological precision.
- Engage critically with both doctrinal and extra-doctrinal dimensions of law using philosophical tools.

Core Themes and Philosophical Coordinates
- The Enlightenment inheritance: Kant, Hume, and the rational foundations of normativity
- Legal positivism and its discontents: Austin, Kelsen, Hart, and the Hart-Fuller-Dworkin-Raz debates
- Critical and continental turns: Hegel, Schmitt, Benjamin, Arendt, Deleuze
- Law, recognition, and subjectivity: Honneth, Lacan, feminist theory
- Post-structuralist and postmodern perspectives: Legal meaning, violence, and interpretation
- Law as narrative, performative, and institutional discourse

Teaching Methods and Course Activities
- Lectures and Dialogical Seminars (hybrid): Focused on primary texts and key conceptual problems
- Moodle-based Resources: Reading guides, discussions, and content
- Short Analytical Essay: Students reflect on a central theoretical issue in light of their own research (approx. 3000 words)
- Take-home Moodle Exam: Addressing theoretical synthesis and critical argumentation