PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- ORSETTA GIOLO
- Credits
- 9
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- IUS/20
Training objectives
- The main goal of the course consists in providing an introduction to law. It aims at making students aware of the basics of modern law, in particular of the constitutional systems. It explains that any legal system consists of two kinds of rules: rules imposing duties and empowering; that fundamental rights restrict any legal power; that anyone who exercises power or is the recipient of obligations has to observe legal rules, which lead to fair behaviours; that judges have the power to interpret and apply rules; that law is different from morals, but justice is the guideline to legal criticism. The main knowledge gained will cover the understanding of the legal experience, the principal legal concepts and principles that guide the contemporary law. As a result, the students will acquire the ability to make correct legal concepts and legal language, as well as to distinguish the different theoretical approaches to the law.
Prerequisites
- Good knowledge of Italian language, skills of logical reasoning and learning abilities.
Course programme
- The course forecasts 60 hours of teaching. The course deals with the subject-matter concerning: law between power and reason and the relationship between decisions, argumentation and legal controls (10 hours); the problem of justice (5 hours); the definition of law and the legal language (5 hours); rules and legal order (10 hours); legislation and jurisdiction (5 hours); interpretation, application and legal reasoning (10 hours); critical legal theory (15 hours).
Didactic methods
- The course will be taught in presence , according to the calendar published on the Course website. Particular attention will be given to the participation of the students , inviting them to formulate questions and comments on the issues raised in class. It will be the reference to the "classics " of the legal-philosophical thought, in order to accustom students to recall the sources and to use the legal-philosophical literature for understanding the legal phenomenon. In the final part of the course, some lessons (8 hours) will be reserved to the deepening of a few specific issues, in seminar mode, thanks to the participation of internal or external professors of Unife: to foster dialogue and discussion during these seminars, students will be invited to act as discussants.
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam consists of a oral test. The aim of the exam is to verify at which level the learning objectives previously described have been acquired. Students have to answer three questions on the topics regarding the course programme. The final assessment is the average of the votes allocated to the individual student's answers.
Reference texts
- Scheduled texts (to be studied jointly):
- B. Pastore, Decisioni, argomenti, controlli. Diritto positivo e filosofia del diritto, Giappichelli, Torino, 2015.
- H. Kelsen, Essenza e valore della democrazia, Giappichelli, Torino, 2004.
- An essay of O. Giolo-MG.Bernardini, Le teorie critiche del diritto, Pacini, Pisa, 2017.
