LAWD2000 Jurisprudence 2021-22 Unit Guide PDF

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Summary

A description and a brief insight into all the material and concepts that will be covered in this module for the academic year....

Description

LAWD20004 JURISPRUDENCE

Law School 2021-2022

Unit Coordinator: Professor Jonathan Burnside UNDERGRADUATE UNIT GUIDE

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Contents Unit Description.....................................................................................................................................3 Intended Learning Outcomes................................................................................................................3 Teaching Staff and Contact Arrangements.............................................................................................3 Learning and Teaching on this Unit........................................................................................................4 Requirements for passing the unit – Summative Assessments:.............................................................6 Core Texts and Resources......................................................................................................................7 Outline of Learning Cycles...................................................................................................................10

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Unit Description Jurisprudence aims to enhance the understanding of law by considering the nature of law from general analytical, normative and empirical perspectives. Students will be expected to grapple with complex theoretical positions and should thereby be enabled to exercise critical judgment in their study of law and demonstrate the relationship between particular aspects of law and their theoretical foundations. The unit will cover theories of adjudication, theories of legal systems, the analysis of legal concepts, the moral purpose of law, theories of justice and the sociology of law. Liberal, Marxist, feminist and postmodern critiques of law will be considered. Students will be expected to read theoretical texts closely, summarise arguments succinctly and clearly, and engage in debate, both oral and written, concerning current controversies within jurisprudence. We will look at a variety of attempts to answer these questions focusing on the Western philosophical tradition. The skills that jurisprudence aims to develop are the ability to master abstract thought, thinking and speaking about law in general categories. It should help you to expose the presuppositions and assumptions of lawyers, and evaluate competing theoretical approaches to law. You should be enabled to place law in the wider context of human affairs. Intended Learning Outcomes The examiners are looking for the following:      

The ability to understand and summarise theoretical positions The ability to compare and contrast different theoretical positions Knowledge of the wider jurisprudential context within which issues are located Knowledge of the problems and criticisms which specific issues have provoked The ability to construct a coherent argument defending a position The ability to write clearly and with authority

Teaching Staff and Contact Arrangements This unit is taught by: Unit Co-ordinator Professor Jonathan Burnside ([email protected]) Teaching Staff Accurate as of 13 September 2021: Christopher Gray ([email protected]) Dr. Omar Madhloom ([email protected]) Dr. Sahar Shah ([email protected]) You are welcome to visit your tutor during consultation hours (in person or online, depending on arrangements at the time) to discuss matters connected to this unit. Staff consultation hours and arrangements will be advertised on Blackboard and will also be posted and kept up-to-date on the Blackboard page under ‘Teaching Staff’. If your tutor’s available consultation hours are not convenient for you, you should make contact them by e-mail to arrange an appointment.

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Learning and Teaching on this Unit Time and location of teaching: For the time/location of classes please refer to your personal timetable (www.bristol.ac.uk/mybristol). You will normally be notified of any changes by email, so please make sure you use your University of Bristol email account and check it regularly. Format of teaching - the blended learning environment: In the 2021/22 academic year, in line with the university’s educational policies, teaching and learning will take place in a ‘blended learning’ environment. Teaching in this unit will be delivered through a combination of asynchronous sessions/activities (learning that is not timetabled, although you may need to complete some work within certain timescales) and synchronous sessions (timetabled classes, delivered either online or on-campus depending on the public health situation and university constraints). Asynchronous materials are prepared and reviewed by academic staff each year to ensure the content is up-to-date and accurate. Video presentations and podcasts recorded in previous years may be provided as part of the suite of learning materials made available through Blackboard when the law remains the same. In order to meet the expectations of the programme and the learning outcomes of the unit, you will need to engage fully with both the asynchronous and synchronous sessions and activities. Teaching and learning is structured through 6 learning cycles (made up of lectures, directed asynchronous work and a synchronous small group seminar), supported by consolidation sessions (comprising a preparatory task and a synchronous larger-group consolidation lecture). In addition, you will have an introductory larger-group welcome and question/answer session at the beginning of the academic year and a final larger-group consolidation session at the end of the academic year as well as revision and skills lectures. Learning Hours: In accordance with University norms for a 20 credit unit, the expected learning hours for this unit are 200 hours. This includes attendance at synchronous lectures and seminars, undertaking asynchronous work and activities including directed reading, preparatory tasks, revision, and formative and summative assessments. To enable you to balance your work across units and across the academic year, we have provided an indication of the time you might expect to spend on particular tasks or activities (and indicated if a task needs to be completed at a particular point in the term). This should help you to prepare properly for and so benefit from all learning opportunities. Timings are only a guide and you may find that certain tasks take less time or more time than we have suggested. If you find that set work is consistently taking you significantly more or less time than indicated, please speak to your tutor or personal tutor for guidance.

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Feedback and Further Academic Support: At the University of Bristol, we want you to succeed! Throughout the course of the academic year, there are multiple and varied opportunities to receive and act on feedback to support your learning. Some feedback will be individual, either in writing or oral, delivered online or on-campus, and directed to specific activities (such as a marked formative assessment – see further below) or more general (such as responding to a discussion in a seminar, or dealing with an issue during consultation hours). You will also receive group feedback in different forms, including during seminar discussion and following formative assessments. As well as academic support within the learning and feedback opportunities provided within the formal unit structure, you are welcome to see your tutor in their consultation hours for additional academic support in this unit (see earlier under ‘Teaching Staff and Contact Arrangements). Approach to Study Jurisprudence is more discursive than other legal subjects; it therefore requires slightly different reading skills. 1. Don’t be afraid of skim-reading and reading widely. Don’t try to take notes to start with. Just read the piece through as quickly as possible, and ask yourself at the end what the author’s argument was. Don’t move to stage 2 until you can summarize the argument in your head. 2. Take notes on a second reading only. Note the key stages in the argument and any useful quotations. Don’t forget to reference your notes properly so that you can recover the original material if necessary (see notes on ‘summarising’ above). 3. If the text refers to, or relies on, other texts which look interesting, make a note of these references as well: you are trying to construct a ‘map’ of the literature. 4. Whenever you read something, ask yourself whether you agree or not, and why. Make a note of your response (initial it, so that it doesn’t get confused with the original author!). 5. Try to read originals, or at least bits of originals, wherever possible. Don’t just read (for example) what Hart said, read Hart. 6. Go over what you have read recently in your mind during spare times of day. 7. Write a summary, in your own words, of what you have read (explained above).

Formative assessment: A formative assessment is intended to aid your learning but does not count towards the overall unit mark. Formative assessments are aimed at, among other things, assisting you in preparing for the summative assessment by testing your ability to engage critically with a topic or topics; and your general writing abilities. As well as developing deeper understanding of a particular topic or topics,

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by engaging with formative assessment you can further develop your skills and better evaluate your ability to engage with the subject and respond effectively to questions. There will be an opportunity to write an essay in December. Details of this essay will be provided nearer the time. Like all formative assessments, it is up to you whether you complete this essay. Note, however, there will be no opportunities for formal written feedback beyond this opportunity. Submission details on this can be found in the “Formative and Summative Assessment Dates 20212022” document on Blackboard. One of the most basic skills in jurisprudence (and indeed for legal study in general) is to be able to read an article, chapter or other extract and summarise its core argument. An important form of formative work you will undertake in this unit is to write some summaries for each learning cycle. Your tutor will also be inviting workshop participants to read out one of their summaries. You should not see this as simply making running notes on a textbook or lecture. Instead, each piece of jurisprudential writing should be understood as a discrete unit with a point or points to get across, which can then be subjected to critical analysis. Summarising the argument is the first stage of engaging with it. In the open book examination we are looking for candidates to show that they can get their heads round tricky pieces of jurisprudential writing in this way. Summarising someone else’s argument is not easy, but as with all skills, gets easier with practice. So, as you prepare for each jurisprudence seminar, you should produce a paragraph (between 100 and 200 words) summarising each piece set as essential reading for the seminar. The more material you can generate for yourself in this way, the better your grasp of the subject will be, and will form an important starting point for your summative assessments.

Type of assessment

% Contribution

Word count

Formative assessment (submitted for marking)

Does not count towards overall mark.

1,500 words (max)

Requirements for passing the unit – Summative Assessments: Summative assessment provides the mark for the unit. The overall mark for all summative work in the unit must be a pass (40 or above). Details of the marking scale and descriptors can be found on the Blackboard Law Student pages and in the Undergraduate Handbook. The assessment will assess all the Intended Learning Outcomes for this unit in the context of topics selected by the examiners. This unit will be summatively assessed by means of:

Type of assessment

% Contribution

Date

Word count (Limit)

Timed Open Book Assessment (sometimes called a ‘take home exam’)

100%

TBC

3,000 words

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The summative timed open book assessment (take home exam) will require you to answer a set number of questions and submit your answer(s) by the deadline set, which will be no less than 5 days and no more than 7 days from the assessment release date. Further guidance on the assessment in this unit will be provided on Blackboard in due course. Submitted work must be the work of the submitting student alone. Assessment submission: Submissions must be written and presented according to the guidance and instructions that will be provided. Instructions for the submission of timed open book assessment answers must be followed closely and answers must be submitted by the deadline provided. Plagiarism and Late Submissions: Please note that students are heavily penalised for plagiarism. Details can be found on Blackboard and in your Programme Handbook. Ensure you are familiar with the current anti-plagiarism guidelines, which can be found on the Blackboard course ‘Effective Legal Scholarship’. In accordance with university rules, no extensions are available for timed open book assessments: it is essential that you submit your work before the deadline. You are advised to plan your time for this and any other assessments carefully to ensure you are able to complete all work before the deadline. Core Texts and Resources Jurisprudence does not have primary legal materials such as cases and statutes, but roughly speaking, there is still a distinction between primary authors (writers who are actually doing jurisprudence) and secondary authors (textbook writers summarising and explaining what the primary authors are doing). Some students try to get away with just reading a textbook, but that is rather like studying contract law without reading any cases. For that reason, the workshop plans have both basic reading (textbooks) and key texts (jurisprudential writing). All the key texts for this unit, required for seminar preparation, are available electronically. If this is not the case, please let the unit co-ordinator know as soon as possible. Books for general consultation (print copies only available in some cases): Lloyd & Freeman, Introduction to Jurisprudence (9th edn., Sweet & Maxwell, 2014) It is not helpful to think of this as a textbook. Most of its 1600 pages of tiny print consists of extracts of primary sources. So use it as a portable library instead and browse selectively. Many of the key readings we ask you to look at for seminars can be found in it, so having a copy is certainly useful. Each chapter starts with a reasonably brief overview, which is like a textbook, and can be used as such. The quality of these overviews varies. Later ones (by Michael Freeman) are more coherent and rather good. Earlier chapters show the effect of the book’s age, in which the now outdated views of its first editor have been encrusted with later emendations. Much of this older core could benefit from a thorough rewrite and is better avoided. There are now many possible textbooks to use, which are drawn on from time to time in the workshops, but unfortunately no one text is completely tailored to our unit. Many of you may find that one textbook tends to ‘speak’ more readily to you. This is normal, and feel free choose another textbook, other than the one set.

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Brian Bix, Jurisprudence: Theory and Context, 8th edn. (Sweet & Maxwell, 2019). Tends to give briefer, more descriptive, accounts of a wider range of theories. Good, but more useful as a short reference work perhaps. Sean Coyle, Modern Jurisprudence: A Philosophical Guide, 2nd edn. (Bloomsbury, 2017). Very nicely written and thoughtful with a clear Natural Law/Thomist-leaning agenda. Presents an argument through the text, but coverage regrettably narrow. Ian McLeod, Legal Theory , 6th edn. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Provides an acceptable balance between coverage and quality. Useful. Denise Meyerson, Understanding Jurisprudence (Routledge-Cavendish, 2007). Slightly unbalanced in relation to our course, with gaps in adjudication and sociology of law. Treatment of the first part of the course (legal positivism/natural law and Dworkin) cross-cutting rather than sequential. This, together with its more advanced style, makes it better as a revision text for later in the year. There is also a book by her called Jurisprudence which appears to cover the same ground as this book. J.E. Penner and E. Melissaris, McCoubrey & White’s Textbook on Jurisprudence, 5th edn. (Oxford University Press, 2012). Very similar in format to Wacks: explanations with boxed quotations. Coverage very unbalanced for our course; Wacks is preferable. Suri Ratnapala, Jurisprudence, 3rd edn. (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Relative newcomer, with good coverage and an approach which matches our course well – i.e. thoughtfully engaged, but without committing to a particular school of jurisprudence. J.G. Riddall, Jurisprudence, 2nd edn. (Butterworths, 1999). Lots of short chapters; chatty, informal, ‘tongue-in-cheek’ style. Very basic accounts of the theories. Too simple really. Nigel Simmonds, Central Issues in Jurisprudence, 5th edn. (Sweet & Maxwell, 2018). Excellent discussion of 2/3 course, with particularly strong accounts of utilitarianism and rights theories. Has a (submerged) agenda in line with a thin, procedural, natural law position. Scott Veitch, Emilios Christodoulidis and Lindsay Farmer, Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts, 3rd edn. (Routledge-Cavendish, 2018). Focuses more on applied jurisprudence. Part I covers early parts of the programme in a very diffuse form; parts II and III contain two in-depth and very helpful studies of adjudication and sociology of law respectively. Fantastic as a follow-on text. Don’t try it to start with. Raymond Wacks, Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory, 5th edn., (Oxford University Press, 2017). Clear and straightforward explanations, with good coverage. A useful text. Margaret Davies, Asking the Law Question, 4th edn., (2017, Thomson Reuters). This is imperfect as a starting textbook, but works well if one wishes to explore how the insights of critical legal studies apply to the various questions considered in each seminar. These are mainly considered in chapters 1 to 4. Chapters 5 to 8 offer a detailed introduction to seminar 8. Because its content does not map well onto the structure of the unit, it is not included in the following rankings. It may well be that some students will find this an intuitive and plausible way into the study of jurisprudence.

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Outline of Learning Cycles The six learning cycles in this unit will focus on the topics set out below. They will be supported by an introductory session and a final consolidation session, and by consolidation classes that will draw on topics and themes from more than one learning cycle. The unit is split into 3 parts, 6 cycles and 5 mini-cycles. Each part (which comprises of 2 cycles and 1 mini-cycle) allow students to ‘see’ law from different (methodological) perspectives (analytical, normative and sociological). Each perspective will then be applied to the nature of adjudication and legal reasoning in the mini-cycle.

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Date (w/c) 27.09.21

Week Cycle 1 MC1

Activity Introduction Mini-Cycle Lecture 1: Introduction to Jurisprudence Lecture 2: Legal Positivism

Part 1 Analytical jurisprudence 04.10.21

2

C1

11.10.21 18.10.21

3 4

C1 C2

25.10.21 01.11.21 08.11.21 15.11.21

5 C2 6 MC2 7 8 Part 2 Normative jurisprudence

22.11.21

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29.11.21 06.12.21

10 11

13.12.21

12

24.01.2022 31.01.2022

Winter Vacation 13 MC3 14 Part 3 Sociological jurisprudence

07.02.2022

15

C5

14.02.2022 21.02.2022

16 17

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