Legal Theory in Europe and the United States: A Very Brief Introduction (SC)

Have American and European legal theorists tended to raise the same sorts of questions about law? If they haven’t, what are the differences in perspective? Twentieth-century European legal theory was dominated by the question of what gives law its validity, whereas American legal theorists have been preoccupied with rather different questions. Yet in Europe and the United States, legal theorists have ultimately found themselves worrying about much the same set of problems. This 1-credit course, taught by a British law professor, is designed to provide students with broader perspectives on some of the problems encountered in other parts of their syllabus, and to familiarize them with arguments and literature that they might draw upon when studying, and completing assignments for other law courses.