Issues in the contemporary legal and political philosophy

The goal of the course is to acquaint students with the key issues and controversies of contemporary legal and political philosophy. The perspective from (or the context in) which the issues will be presented will be that of principal legal values, i.e., values which law should realize/defend/respect/promote. The introductory lecture will provide an overview of the main theories of values (subjectivist vs. objectivist, monistic vs. pluralistic). The remaining lectures will offer a discussion of the content, philosophical underpinnings, and mutual relationships of specific legal values, such as justice, freedom, economic efficiency, tolerance, solidarity, peace, or trust. The perspective assumed in the course (that of legal values), will not only provide an opportunity for a thorough analysis of these values themselves, but will also enable a non-standard presentation of classical controversies in legal and political philosophy (e.g., law of nature vs. legal positivism; paternalism vs. autonomy; social liberalism vs. libertarianism). A separate lecture will be devoted to the possible conflicts between conscience and the law. The last lecture will deal with the question of whether there is a progress in law, and, if there is such a progress, how it can be philosophically interpreted and what concrete progressive tendencies can be discerned in the historical development of law.

Law and Values

1. Pluralism of values

2. Justice:

- Social (intra-state) justice

- Global justice

- Formal justice, the rule of law, and equity

3.Solidarity and welfare state

4. Freedom:

- Individual freedom: negative and republican freedom (freedom as non-domination)

- The controversy over the limits of individual freedom

- Three faces of the right to privacy

- Freedom of speech

- Political freedom

- Civil disobedience - on the conflict between law and conscience

5. Tolerance and neutrality

6. Social utility/happiness and economic efficiency

7. Peace as a legal value: ethics of war

8. Is there an (axiological) progress in law?

Exam based exclusively on lectures: 3 questions, 60 minutes; or essay; or an oral exam (depending on students' preferences)

Additional literature:

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, The University of Chicago Press 1958.

Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty” in: The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2000.

Benjamin Constant, “Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns” in: Political Writings, Cambridge University Press 1988.

Harry Frankfurt, „Equality as a Moral Ideal”, Ethics, 98(1), 1987, pp. 21-43.

Martin P. Golding, William A. Edmundsen (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, Blackwell, Oxford 1995.

Robert. E. Goodin, Philip Pettit (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Blackwell1995.

John Stuart Mill, ‘On Liberty’ and Other Writings, Dover Publications, Inc. 2002).

Derek Parfit, „Equality and Priority”, Ratio, 3(10), 1997, pp. 202-221.

Philip Pettit, “Freedom and Antipower”, Ethics, Vol. 106, No. 3, 1996, pp. 576-604.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press 1971.

Wojciech Załuski, Law and Evil: the Evolutionary Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing 2018.