LAW 000/4202 - Law and Justice in our Times (3 cr.)

Students will first engage with fundamental questions about the nature of law, including the postulated connections between law and justice, or morality; and the relationship between law and politics. Drawing on seminal legal theorists, the seminar will explore the evolution, specificity, and function of law; and the sources, and limits, of legal obligation. This analysis will be situated in the context of contemporary states. With their diverse and often divided citizenries, these polities both demand, and problematise, the public/private distinction on which the liberal legal tradition relies.

After these foundational concepts have been elucidated and interrogated, the seminar will turn to more concrete matters. Students will appraise the effects of formal legal equality in deeply unequal societies. Throughout the seminar, we will examine law’s impact in specific settings, enabling students to revisit their appraisals of law, and develop their capacities to examine, evaluate, and critique; to think reflectively. We will examine the basic units of law, rules; and scrutinize different techniques of legal reasoning. These will be examined and evaluated as we explore specific topics, including legal person-hood, criminal law, contracts, tort, and civil liability.

The seminar will then develop a comparative analysis of key legal traditions: Civil Law, Common Law, Islamic Law, and International Law. This will allow students to contextualize, and survey, the history of the Egyptian Legal system, and examine the forces which shape it. In the final classes, students will exercise and demonstrate their critical, analytic, and reflective thinking skills, examining and evaluating selected topics in contemporary Egyptian Law.

When Offered
Spring or Fall (once a year).