This course uses literary texts as a focus for discussing some of the fundamental questions surrounding the cultural representation of legal order. Among the topics to be considered are theories of the origins of law and the sources of legal authority, the social function of the law, the conflict between form and substance in legal discourse, the assessment of individual responsibility and the limits of legal liability, the legal relationship of the state and the individual, and the boundary between legality and morality.
This course uses literary texts as a focus for discussing some of the fundamental questions surrounding the cultural representation of legal order. Among the topics to be considered are theories of the origins of law and the sources of legal authority, the social function of the law, the conflict between form and substance in legal discourse, the assessment of individual responsibility and the limits of legal liability, the legal relationship of the state and the individual, and the boundary between legality and morality.
