Postgraduate course 2020/2021

Contemporary Problems of Legal Theory

Type: Elective course

Area of studies: Law

Delivered by: School of Theory of Law and Comparative Law

When: 1 year, 1 semester

Mode of studies: offline

Instructors: Rodion Belkovich

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 20

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The aim of this course is to get the graduate students acquainted with contemporary problems in the field of legal theory through reading and discussing the articles published in academic journals and open-access preliminary drafts in leading academic aggregators. The texts chosen for the course make students go beyond their narrow research subjects and even beyond the legal agenda as such. This results in a more multidisciplinary approach in students' own studies which is essential today for a scholar who wants to do world-class research. The exact structure of the course and the choice of specific texts for each academic year is the lecturer's discretion. He chooses the texts and sends the links or the files themselves to the students. The students are expected to read the materials and engage during the seminar in a discussion of the topics raised in the texts.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of this course is to get the graduate students acquainted with contemporary problems in the field of legal theory through reading and discussing the articles published in academic journals and open-access preliminary drafts in leading academic aggregators.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Shows the ability to critically evaluate contemporary academic achievements; ability to choose the most effective strategies of multidisciplinary research.
• Demonstrates the ability to create new research approaches, to put research in the context of international academic agenda.
• Describe the epistemological borders of different theoretical concepts.
• Demonstrates the strong and the weak aspects of different research strategies, has a grasp of the scope of methods of critical analysis.
• Demonstrates the understanding of causation in social relationships and legal regulation.
• Shows the ability to detect the cutting-edge fields of social relationships and to compare the possible legislative responses towards these new phenomena.

Course Contents

• Free Will as a Matter of Law
  Kolber A.J. Free Will as a Matter of Law https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2660457
• Collective Identity
  Luban D. Arendt on the Crime of Crimes / Ratio Juris. Vol. 28 (3). 2015. Pp. 307-325. https://doi.org/10.1111/raju.12084
• Legal Education and Hierarchy
  Kennedy D. Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy / Journal of Legal Education. Vol. 32, No. 4. 1982. Pp. 591-615. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42897806
• Legal Pluralism
  Tamanaha B.Z. Understanding Legal Pluralism / Sydney Law Review. Vol.30. 2008. Pp. 375-411. https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLRev/2008/20.pdf
• Paradoxes of Popular Rule
  Roznai Y. “We the People”, “Oui, the People” and the Collective Body: Perceptions of Constituent Power https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2960880
• Artificial Intelligence and Legal Agency
  Solum L.B. Legal Personhood for Artificial Intelligences / North Carolina Law Review. Vol.70. 1992. Pp. 1231-1287. https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3447&context=nclr
• Moral Dilemmas in Law
  Huang B.I. Law and Moral Dilemmas / Harvard Law Review. Vol. 130. 2016. Pp. 659-699. http://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/659-699-Online.pdf

Assessment Elements

• Classroom discussion activity online
• Free discussion online
  A free discussion with the lecturer on the topics covered during the course.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (1 semester)
  0.5 * Classroom discussion activity online + 0.5 * Free discussion online

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Burdon, P. (2017). Hannah Arendt : Legal Theory and the Eichmann Trial. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1598224
• Constituent power and the constitution. (2016). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198754527.003.0008
• Haenlein, M., & Kaplan, A. (2019). A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: On the Past, Present, and Future of Artificial Intelligence. California Management Review, 61(4), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125619864925
• Lacey, N. (2014). “Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy” Revisited. Transnational Legal Theory, 5(4), 596–600. https://doi.org/10.5235/20414005.5.4.596
• McKenna, M., Pereboom, D., & Pereboom, D. (2016). Free Will : A Contemporary Introduction. New York, NY: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1271658
• Rehman, S., & Dzionek, K. J. (2018). The Trolley Problem Revisited. An Exploratory Study. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.9EFCDCCA
• Swenson, G. (2018). Legal Pluralism in Theory and Practice. International Studies Review, 20(3), 438–462. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/vix060
• Воображаемые сообщества : размышления об истоках и распространении национализма, Андерсон, Б., 2001
• Лекции по искусственному интеллекту, Осипов, Г. С., 2013
• Методы представления знаний и алгоритмы поиска в задачах искусственного интеллекта, учебное пособие, 146 с., Бабкин, Э. А., Козырев, О. Р., Куркина, И. В., 2005

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Искусственный интеллект : современный подход, Рассел, С., 2006