Philosophy of Law (Phil 43), Spring 2007

Instructor: 		Samir Chopra
Office: 			1214 Ingersoll Hall 
Mailbox:		2109 Ingersoll Hall (CIS Department)	
Email: 			schopra@sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu
Phone: 			718.951.5000 (x2044) 
Class: 			Monday/Thursday: 12:15 – 1:30 PM (5604 James)
Office hours:		Monday: 2 PM - 3 PM (or by appointment)

Exceptions to Class Schedule: We will not meet on February 12th, February 19th, April 2nd, April 5th, and April 9th. We will however meet on February 21st. 

Please read this syllabus carefully. It contains answers to most questions you might raise during the semester. 

Course Requirements

•	Attendance, Participation, Weekly Quizzes: 20 % of the final grade 

•	Paper Assignments: 80 % of the final grade (4 assignments – each for 20 %)

•	Your last paper will be due on the day of the scheduled final exam. 

•	For writing assignments, you will have two weeks to work on your answers. If you experience any difficulty with the questions, come and talk to me. If you’d like to show me a draft, by all means, do so. In my experience, students who have shown me drafts of papers have invariably done better on their papers than students who did not. 

•	I will not accept late assignments. Do not ask me for extensions.  It is unfair to all students who handed their papers in on time. To make up the grade you must submit different essays. 

•	I do not accept emailed assignments. All papers must be handed to me in person or left in my mailbox - if you cannot attend class - on the day the paper is due. There will be no 'extra-credit' assignments. 

•	You can resubmit one paper for a regrading. The grade you receive on the regraded paper will replace the original grade. 

•	Plagiarism will be rewarded with an F on the assignment, and further disciplinary action through the office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. 
 
Attendance
Failure to attend class will mean a reduction in your classroom activity grade. It is in your best interest to attend all classes. Participation in class discussion is of paramount importance.  Your understanding of topics will be best displayed by your asking intelligent, well reasoned questions, and displaying an awareness of the issues raised in the readings. Nothing you say in class will cause your grade to be lowered. Asking questions about the readings will aid your understanding of the material, and help me as well. Absence from a class means you will not profit from class discussion and your ability to write quality papers will be diminished. Please be on time; late arrivals are very disruptive, and we have limited class time in any case. 

Textbook and Readings

Frederick Schauer, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, The Philosophy of Law, Harcourt Brace, ISBN: 0-15-500827-7 (Available at Shakespeare) 

The more you read this semester, the more you get out of this class. The topics covered in this class are not simple, and require considerable diligence in reading the material indicated. If you find the vocabulary unfamiliar, work with a dictionary. If you find material hard going, don’t worry; it is meant to be hard. Work through the readings closely.  Your classroom experience will be immeasurably enhanced and enriched if you come to each lecture having worked through the readings. Conversely, the classroom experience will be considerably diminished if you insist on coming to class unprepared. If you do not do the readings, you will not follow the lectures, and you will receive bad grades on the writing assignments.   

The following schedule of readings is tentative; numbers in parentheses below indicate page numbers in the textbook. 

Jan 29: Introduction (1-7)

February 1: The Theory of Natural Law (8-28)

February 5: Legal Positivism (29-49)

February 8: Legal Realism and Critical Legal Studies (50-69)

February 15: Law as Integrity (70-106)

February 21: Case Study: The Fugitive Slave Laws (107-115) - first paper assigned

February 22: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (117-160)

February 26: Reasoning from Precedent (161-188)

March 1: Critical Perspectives on Legal Reasoning (190-218)

March 5: Moral Obligations and the Law (219-249) - first paper due

March 8: The Structure of Rights (279-306)

March 12: The Right to Liberty (307-352) 

March 15: A Right to Free Speech (354-401)

March 19: The Right to Privacy (403-443) - second paper assigned

March 22: The Right to Property (474-492)

March 26: Justice and Equality (493-504

March 29: Theories of Justice (505-541)

April 12: Discrimination (542-565) - second paper due 

April 16: Preferential Treatment (566-605)

April 19: Equality for Women (607-632) 

April 23: Punishment and Utilitarian Theories (661-689)

April 26: Retributivism, Capital Punishment (from 691-716, 720-780) - third paper assigned

April 30: Responsibility (783-814)

May 3: Responsibility for Omissions (815-845) 

May 7: Mens Rea and Strict Liability (846-886)

May 10: Legal Procedure, Evidence, Proof (929-944) - third paper due

May 14: Probability and the Law of Evidence (946-964)

May 17: Criminal Procedure and the Exclusionary Rule (965-976) - Final papers assigned

Final papers due on scheduled final date at 4:30 PM in my mailbox in 2109 Ingersoll Hall. No late submissions will be accepted.