LAWS121

This course explores the dialectical relation between law and justice from the perspectives of the humanities--drawing substantially from the field of general jurisprudence, and specifically from the disciplines of philosophy, history and literature of law. The focus of the course regards the many ways that justice as both a moral and a legal construct has been conceived in its social and historical contexts from Biblical and Hellenic to modern and contemporary times. Specific emphasis is given to the schism between descriptive and prescriptive theories of justice, the emanation of justice through law in time, and the often problematic relationship of the individual to the state. This course is the first of two required 100 level courses for the Law and Society major, one of which is required as a prerequisite for all other Law and Society courses.