PSCI 475 - Jurisprudence

3 hours
Relying heavily on primary source documents, this rigorous course examines the lives and thought of the great legal philosophers and jurists in the Western legal tradition from ancient to modern times. Beginning with the ancient near eastern antecedents to Hebrew law in the Torah, the course then covers the legacies of Greek thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, Roman leaders such as Cicero and Justinian, and early and medieval Christian theologians such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. After exploring the Hebraic, Greco-Roman and early Christian influences on the Western legal tradition, the course focuses on the emergence of the Anglo-American legal heritage, forged largely by concepts emerging from the Reformation, Renaissance and Enlightenment. Students wrestle with the writings of “higher law” theorists such as Thomas Hooker, John Locke, William Blackstone, Edmund Burke, and several American Founders, as well as the writings of the utilitarian and legal positivist thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, John Austin, and John Rawls. Prerequisite(s): PSCI 220; PSCI 280 or PSCI 290. UG