PHIL 273 – Philosophy of Law

This course will consist of four sections. We will start by understanding what law is by looking at a classic debate within the philosophy of law between natural law and legal positivism (whether law and morality are connected). We will then look at adjudication, the different methods that judges use to interpret laws and we will do this by looking at famous, recent supreme court judgments. We will then look at freedom of religion cases and think about whether religious practices should be exempt from general laws that normally applies to everyone. We will end with the largest section of the course: the legal regulation of freedom of speech and then connect it to freedom of speech on the internet.