This course introduces the student to jurisprudence. It surveys the generic themes or issues which occupy inquiry in jurisprudence regardless of philosophical position. Such themes or issues extend to the legitimacy of the legal order; the relativity of the authority of law in relation to concepts of personhood, community, society, politics, or transcendence; the mediation of legal authority by patterns of interpretation and legal reasoning; the purposes of law relating to justice, civic order, public morality, and public welfare or well-being. The course's exploration of these themes or issues is designed to facilitate the restatement and critique of the diverse answers they elicit from differing approaches to jurisprudence. The course, then, proceeds to a synthesis of the key features of the schools or positions which comprise the primary options in contemporary normative jurisprudence. These schools or positions include Utilitarianism/Law and Economics, Libertarianism and Neo-Kantianism, Liberal Rights Theory, Natural Law, Critical Legal Studies, Postmodernism, and Feminist Jurisprudence. The course grades will be assigned based on a paper/examination option. At the discretion of the instructor, if the instructor allows papers in lieu of examinations, this course may include a qualifying course paper that fulfills one half of the upper level writing requirement. Refer to Academic Rule X - Writing Requirement and Directed Research. 

Upper-level course for:
XXVI. Perspectives on Law and Legal Systems
XXVII. Religion and the Law