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This document was last modified on January 12, 1999.. 

Jurisprudence 315

Readings

Spring 1999 Mr. Froomkin - Check back for 2006 updates 

I. Introduction [3-4 classes]

  1. The Case of the Speluncean Explorers
    1. Lon L. Fuller, The Problems of Jurisprudence 2-26 (1949). 2
    2. Anthony D'Amato, Jurisprudence: A Descriptive and Normative Analysis of Law 304-327 (1984). 27
  2. Australian problems
    1. Rex v. Jack Congo Murrell, (1836) 1 Legge 72. 39
    2. R. v. Jemmy, (7 Sept. 1860) Argus (Newsp.) (Vic.) (Vic. Sup. Ct. F.C.). 40
    3. Alex C. Castles, An Australian Legal History 537-39 (1982). 43
    4. Marc Gumbert, Neither Justice Nor Reason 10-11, 26-27 (1984). 45
    5. Barry Bridges, The Extension of English Law to the Aborigines for Offences Committed Inter Se, 1829-1842, 59 J. Royal Aust. Hist. Soc. 264 (1973). 47
  3. Lon L. Fuller
    1. Lon L. Fuller, Means and Ends, in The Principles of Social Order 47-61 (Kenneth I. Winston ed., 1981). 50
  4. What is "law" as a subject?
    1. Is law a science? (What are scientific laws?) Tests of Truth, The Economist, Nov. 14, 1992, at 106-07. 58
    2. Is law a social science? Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue 88-107 (2d ed. 1984). 60
    3. What does law do? Karl E. Klare, The Public/Private Distinction in Labor Law, 130 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1358 (1982). 70

II. Where does one find the law? (Sources of "law".)

  1. Nature [four classes]
    1. "Natural law".
      1. John Locke, Locke on Government: Two Treatises on Government 189-199, 208-229, 340-357 (1821). 71
      2. Janna Thompson, Justice & World Order, Chapter 1: "Being Realistic" (1992).
    2. Natural rights
      1. The Declaration of Independence (U.S. 1776) 99
      2. President Woodrow Wilson's Address to Congress Regarding Fourteen Conditions of Peace (January 8, 1918). 103
      3. Fla. Const. pmbl., art. I. 107
      4. Slavery. Stephen E. Gottlieb, Jurisprudence: Cases & Materials 10-17 (1993). 108
    3. Biology. A Critique of Pure Reason, The Economist, July 4, 1992, at 73. 112
    4. Social Relations (Game Theory). Robert C. Ellickson, Order Without Law 158-66 (1991). 115
  2. Social contracts [one or two classes]
    1. John Locke, Locke of Government: Two Treatises on Government 269-293 (1821). 120
    2. Plato, The Crito. 134
    3. Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens 36-47, 88-103 (1979). 143
  3. Humans. (Positivism and (some of) its critics.) [four classes]
    1. HLA Hart
      1. Howard Davies & David Holdcroft, Jurisprudence: Texts and Commentary 34-47 (1991). 157
      2. Barry Hoffmaster, Professor Hart on Legal Obligation, 11 Ga. L. Rev. 1309-14 (1977) .164
    2. The problem of "evil legal systems"
      1. Nuremburg. Stephen E. Gottlieb, Jurisprudence: Cases and Materials 81-95 (1993) 168
      2. David Dyzenhaus, Hard Cases in Wicked Legal Systems 15-18, 21-31 (1991). 176
      3. The Case of the Grudge Informer. Anthony D'Amato, Jurisprudence: A Descriptive and Normative Analysis of Law 46-55 (1984). 185
    3. Positivism and adjudication. Howard Davies & David Holdcroft, Jurisprudence: Texts and Commentary 69-84, 107-08 (1991). 190
    4. Problems with Humans: Legal Realism [one class]
      1. E. Adamson Hoebel, The Law of Primitive Man 18-28 (1970). 201
      2. Anthony D'Amato, Jurisprudence: A Descriptive and Normative Analysis of Law 5-35, 41-45 (1984) 207
      3. Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr., The Judgment Intuitive: The Function of the "Hunch" in Judicial Decision, 14 Cornell L. Q. 274-276, 280, 282, 284-87 (1929). 226
      4. Felix S. Cohen, Transcendental Nonsense and the Functional Approach, 35 Colum. L. Rev. 809-814, 835-38, 842-47 (1935). 232
      5. John M. Conley & William M. O'Barr, Fundamentals of Jurisprudence: An Ethnography of Judicial Decision Making in Informal Courts, 66 N. C. L. Rev. 467 (1988). 242
  4. Common Law - Written or unwritten? [one class]
    1. Bruce L. Benson, The Enterprise of Law 21-30 (1990) 262
    2. Act of Nov. 6, 1829 268
    3. 1 Fla. Stat. 2.01 (1991) 271
    4. 1 Fla. Stat. Ann. 2.01 (West 1991) (Historical Note)
    5. Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law 1-2 (1949) 277
  5. Written Sources
    1. Constitutions [one class]
      1. U.S. Const. preface, art. V 279
      2. U.N. Charter 280
      3. Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States (Revised) 102 (1986) 300
    2. Legislation [one class]
      1. Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law 33-41 (2d ed. 1969) 301
      2. Lon L. Fuller, The Implicit Laws of Lawmaking, in The Principles of Social Order 158-168 (Kenneth I. Winston ed. 1981) 306
    3. Formalized Precedent [three classes]
      1. Weber v. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., 611 F.2d 133 (5th Cir. 1980) (Gee, J.) 312
      2. Jawish v. Morlet, 86 A.2d 96 (D.C. 1952) 313
      3. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 112 S. Ct. 2791 (1992) 314
    4. Problems with texts/rules [one class]
      1. P.S. Atiyah & R.S. Summers, Form and Substance in Anglo-American Law 88-95 (1987) 357
      2. Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304, 306-07 (1892) 361
      3. Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1891) 363
      4. David L. Shapiro, The Death of the Up/Down Distinction, 36 Stan. L. Rev. 465 (1984) 372
  6. "Law and Society" (Law on the Ground)
    1. International [two classes]
      1. W. Michael Reisman, Law From the Policy Perspective, in International Law Essays 1-14 (Myres S. McDougal & W. Michael Reisman eds., 1981) 374
      2. Jon Elster, Local Justice: How Institutions Allocate Scarce Goods and Necessary Burdens 132-34 (1992) 388
      3. United States v. Tiede, 86 F.R.D. 227 (D. Berlin, 1979) 390
      4. United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 112 S. Ct. 2188 (1992) 410
      5. Mexican Doctor Files $20 Million Suit Against U.S. Drug Agents, UPI, July 9, 1993 420
      6. Two Kinds of Federal Kidnapping, The Plain Dealer, July 2, 1993 422
    2. Domestic [two classes]
      1. Brandt Goldstein, Panhandling in New Haven: A Study of the Limits of the Law, Yale Law Report 2-5, 17 (Spring 1993) 424
      2. Stephen J. Adler & Wade Lambert, Just About Everyone Violates Some Laws, Even Model Citizens, Wall St. J., Mar. 12, 1993, at A1 429
      3. Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens 141-46 (1979) 432
      4. Robert C. Ellickson, Of Coase and Cattle: Dispute Resolution Among Neighbors in Shasta County, 38 Stan. L. Rev. 623 (1986) [ Note: read Parts I, IV & V; skim parts II & III ] 436
      5. Robert C. Ellickson, Order Without Law 147-55, 280-86 (1991) 469
    3. "Custom" [one or two classes]
      1. Problems in identifying custom - domestic
        1. Sally Falk Moore, History and the Redefinition of Custom on Kilimanjaro, in History and Power in the Study of Law 277-301 (June Starr & Jane F. Collier eds., 1989) 478
        2. Sally Falk Moore, Treating Law as Knowledge: Telling Colonial Officers What to Say to Africans about Running "Their Own" Native Courts, 26 L. & Soc. Rev. 11 (1992) [we may skip this] 491
      2. Problems in identifying custom - international
        1. Review the U.N. Charter, Art. 38 [above at II.E.1.b] and the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States (Revised) 102 [above at II.E.1.c].
        2. Louis Henkin et al., International Law: Cases and Materials 37-45, 64-69 (2d ed. 1987) 527
        3. Lex mercatoria. Ole Lando, The Lex Mercatoria In International Commercial Arbitration, 34 Int'l & Comp. L.Q. 747, 748-55 (1985) 542

III. Is international law different from municipal law?

  1. H.L.A. Hart

  2. H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law 208-31 (1961). 547
  3. Kant [two classes]
    1. Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace (subject to copyright clearances).
    2. Fernando Teon, The Kantian Theory of International Law, 92 Colum. L. Rev. 53-74, 84-93, 99-102 (1992) 559
    3. Janna Thompson, Justice & World Order, Chapters 2 & 4 (1992).

IV. Community

  1. What is the community? [three classes]
    1. Janna Thompson, Justice & World Order, Chapters 6, 7 & 8 (1992).
    2. Regina v. Jackson, [1956] R. & N.L.R. 66 (high court Nyasaland) 594
    3. The Attorney-General For Nyasaland v. Jackson, [1957] R. & N.L.R. 433 (Federal Supreme Court) 595
    4. Sanford Levinson, Constituting Communities Through Words That Bind: Reflections on Loyalty Oaths, 84 Mich. L. Rev. 1440 (1986) 597
    5. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue 244-55 (2d ed. 1984) 613
    6. Lon L. Fuller, Two Principles of Human Association, in The Principles of Social Order 67-85 (Kenneth I. Winston ed., 1981) 619
  2. Robert Cover on Communities [two classes]
    1. Robert Cover, Foreword: Nomos and Narrative, 97 Harv. L. Rev. 4 (1983) 629
    2. Robert Cover, Violence and the Word, 95 Yale L.J. 1601 (1986) 694

V. Critiques of the Assumptions Dominating or Constituting the "Community"

  1. Feminism. [two classes]
    1. Catherine A. MacKinnon, Towards a Feminist Theory of the State (1989), excerpted in Stephen E. Gottlieb, Jurisprudence: Cases & Materials 782-791 (1993) 709
    2. Robin West, Jurisprudence & Gender, 55 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1-42, 58-72 (1988) 714
    3. Deborah L. Rhode, Feminist Critical Theories 42 Stan. L. Rev. 616 (1990) 751
  2. Critical race theory [one class]
    1. Foreword to the Symposium on Race Consciousness and Legal Scholarship, 1992 U. Ill. L. Rev. 945-46 763
    2. Robin D. Barnes, Standing Guard for the P.C. Militia, or, Fighting Hatred and Indifference: Some Thoughts on Expressive Hate-Conduct and Political Correctness, 1992 U. Ill. L. Rev. 979 765
  3. Voices.

  4. Mari J. Matsuda, Voices of America: Accent, Antidiscrimination Law, and a Jurisprudence for the Last Reconstruction, 100 Yale L.J. 1329-57, 1387-1407 (1991). [one class] 774
  5. Civil disobedience as a form of critique. [one class]
    1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in Why We Can't Wait (1964) 800
    2. Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, in Václav Havel: Living in Truth 41-62, 72-80, 84-104, 113-122 (Jan Vladislav ed., 1986) 813
    3. United States v. Dorrell, 758 F.2d 427 (9th Cir. 1985) 846

VI. Ethics in the Shadow of the Law

[to be skipped if we run out of time]
  1. David Luban et al., Moral Responsibility in the Age of Bureaucracy, 90 Mich. L. Rev. 2348 (1992) 852
  2. Elizabeth Wolgast, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations 19-39, 67-95 (1992)
  3. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath 31-39 (1939) 875
  4. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue 192-95, 26-31 (2d ed. 1984). 880
  5. Elizabeth Wolgast, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations 114-30 (1992)
  6. Serena Stier, Legal Ethics: The Integrity Thesis, 52 Ohio St. L.J. 551 (1991) 885

VII. Reprise

[one class]
  1. Coe v. The Commonwealth, 18 ALR 592 (1978) 915
  2. Smith v. United States, 113 S.Ct. 1178 (1993) 922.

Class Policies

All classes will be in a seminar format. Grades will be based on a compbination of a final exam and class participation. Class participaton is an important component of your grade in this class.

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Every student will be asked to act as discussion leader for a small number of classes.

A full schedule will appear here after the end of the drop-add period.

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