In this course, students will take a closer look at the concepts of law, justice, and morality, and how these concepts are interconnected.
It is often assumed that law, justice, and morality come together to form a single straightforward, coherent conception. The popular media often suggests, for example, that a constitutional state equals just institutions, and that legal procedures, if they function properly, lead to outcomes that are fair from a moral point of view. However, contrary to these popular views, law, justice and morality are often not at all aligned. For one thing, there are a myriad of theories of justice, each proposing different ways of organising law and the institutions of the state. Moreover, legal theory tends to emphasise that even unjust law can, in specific instances be legally valid. Finally, Western societies are characterised by a plurality of (religious and secular) ideas of the good life (moralities). The question then becomes: how can law offer just and effective solutions when such moralities conflict?
The course revolves around a discussion of dominant philosophies of law, – legal positivism and natural rights theories – and theories of justice and morality – utilitarianism, virtue ethics, deontology, egalitarian liberalism, libertarianism, socialism and communitarianism. The basic question is aptly summarised by David Miller: how should the good and bad things in life be distributed among the members of a human society?