PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- BALDASSARE PASTORE
- 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 acquired knowledge will refer to the essential elements of law, the most important conceptions of law, the functions of law in social reality, the relation between law and the other practical fields.
The basic acquired abilities ((i. e. the capacity of applying the acquired knowledge) will refer to the understanding of legal experience and its basic concepts. Prerequisites
- Good knowledge of Italian language, skills of logical reasoning and learning abilities.
There are not propaedeutic exams. Course programme
- The course forecasts 60 hours of teaching. The course deals with the subject-matter concerning: functions and elements of law: coordination, cooperation and conflict; rules, sanctions, institutions, procedures, actions (12 hours). Law between power and reason (2 hours); . Aims and values of law: justice and rights; the tradition of natural law and the positive law (12 hours). The structures and the forms of legal organization: authority, legal order and legal system, legal sources, Rule of Law, constitutionalism, international community (16 hours). Legal practices: law as interpretative social practice; interpretation and argumentation, legal reasoning, judicial decisions (12 hours). The transformations of law in the global era (6 hours).
Didactic methods
- The course will cover all the topics of the program.
To support, diagrams reproducing the content of the lessons are available online.
The course will be delivered in person, according to the calendar published on the website of the Study Course. The recorded video lessons will be made available by the teacher
in the Classroom of the course. Classroom code:
kpnmzap 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 some questions on the topics regarding the course programme. The final evaluation is established in connection with the examination results.
Reference texts
- B. Pastore, F. Viola, G. Zaccaria, Le ragioni del diritto, Il Mulino, Bologna 2017.
