Syllabus query



Academic Year/course: 2020/21

8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences

32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy


Teaching Guide Information

Academic Course:
2020/21
Academic Center:
807 - Masters Centre of the Department of Law
Study:
8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences
Subject:
32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy
Credits:
4.0
Course:
1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Group 2: English
Teachers:
Jose Luis Martí Màrmol, Jahel Queralt Lange
Teaching Period:
Second Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

Course focus and approach: This is a multidisciplinary course that aims to integrate the perspectives of law, political philosophy, international relations, and political science. It is an introduction to some of the most relevant problems that both politics and the law (particularly, public law) are facing in the 21st century. It focuses on the structure, aims, and content of public law, and the main discussions about its justice and legitimacy. It is not an aim of this course, therefore, to provide a deep understanding of a particular issue concerning public law, but a general landscape of the many issues involved in the idea of the law itself, and in its acceptability from a normative point of view. It will emphasize the importance of the new global scenario and the current digital transformations.

 

Course description: The course is divided into four parts, and 22 class periods. The first part will be just introductory, but it is an attempt to introduce the student to the new scenario in which the law, politics, and justice are placed. This new scenario is characterized mainly by two distinct but interrelated phenomena that, together, are profoundly changing our societies: globalization and the digital revolution.

 

The second part consists of an introduction to law, to its functions, to the idea of a rule of law, to its sources, the main law traditions, and the law branches. It continues with an introduction to constitutional law and criminal law, as two main branches of public law. And it also introduces the debate about the democratic legitimacy of jthe power of high courts and udicial review.

 

The third part concerns the theories of justice. It focuses on the main contemporary theories of justice, such as utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, republicanism, and feminism. And it includes the debate about the proposal of a Universal Basic Income.

 

The fourth and last part deals with political legitimacy, and mainly focuses on the application of our discussions about legitimacy and democracy to the global order. It embraces the main recent discussions about global justice, state sovereignty and global democracy. 

Associated skills

- Critican thinking

- Normative reasoning

- Creative research

- Academic writing

Learning outcomes

Learning objectives: The general aim of the course is to provide pre-law students with a general understanding of the law, particularly public law, at the light of the major normative challenges it must face in the 21st century. Besides this, the course adopts the following concrete learning objectives:

 

• The students must acquire a general understanding of what the law is, what is its usual content, what is the main role for public law in particular, and what are the main challenges that it faces in the 21st century, particularly those derived from globalization and the digital transformations.

• The students must learn the fundamentals of public law, and especially the constitutional essentials.

• The students must achieve a general knowledge and understanding of the main normative issues involved in current constitutional democracies, concerning questions of justice and legitimacy.

Prerequisites

None

Contents

The course is structured into 22 class periods of two hours each along 11 weeks, grouped into 4 parts. Every week there will be a general theme, a topic for discussion, and a list of required readings. 

 

 

 

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO A NEW SCENARIO

 

Period 1: Introduction: Law, Justice and Legitimacy

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 2: A New Global Scenario for Law and Politics

 

Reading Assignments:

• Held, David and Anthony McGrew, “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction”, in Held, David and Anthony McGrew (eds), The Global Transformations Reader, London: Polity Press, 2003, pp. 1-14 and 32-42.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Nye, Joseph. S., The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: chapters 2 and 3.

 

Topic for discussion: How is globalization affecting/changing our nation states?

 

Period 3: The Digital Revolution

 

Reading Assignments:

• Benkler, Yochai, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Have: Yale University Press, 2006: ch. 1, pp. 1-28.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Rheingold, Howard, Net Smart. How to Thrive Online, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 2012: introduction and chapters 4 and 5.

 

Topic for discussion: Will the new technologies change dramatically our political and legal institutions?

 

 

PART II: INTRODUCTION TO LAW

 

Period 4: The Law, Its Functions, and the Rule of Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Partington, M., “Law and society: the purposes and functions of law”, in Introduction to the English Legal System. 6th ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010: p.12-26.

 

Period 5: Legal Traditions, Sources of Law and Branches of the Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Wacks, Raymond, Law. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 1-28 and 36-66.

 

Topic for discussion: Should the rule of law be respected at any rate, even when the legal provisions to be enforced are unjust?

 

Period 6: Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights

 

Reading assignments:

• Barendt, Eric, Introduction to Constitutional Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998: chap.1, pp. 1-25.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Waluchow, Will, “Constitutionalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constitutionalism/

 

Period 7: Legal Interpretation and Legal Indeterminacy

 

Reading assignments:

Bobbitt, Philip, “Constitutional Law and Interpretation”, in Dennis M. Patterson (ed.), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

 

Topic for discussion: Does the American constitution prohibit death penalty? Isn’t it a cruel and unusual punishment?

 

Period 8: Constitutional Rigidity, Judicial Review and the Democratic Objection

 

Class formal debate: Is it legitimate that high courts may strike down democratic legislation passed by our parliaments?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dworkin, Ronald, Is Democracy Possible Here?, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006: chap. 5: pp. 127-159.

• Waldron, Jeremy, “The Core of the Case Against Judicial Review”, The Yale Law Journal, 115, 2006.

• Hirschl, Ran, “The Judicialization of Mega-Politics and the Rise of Political Courts”, Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 2008, pp. 93-118.

• Ferreres, Victor, “A Defense of Constitutional Rigidity”, Analisi e Diritto, 2000: pp. 45-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Martí, José Luis, “Is Constitutional Rigidity the Problem? Democratic Legitimacy and the Last Word”, Ratio Juris, 2014, pp. 550-558.

• Sinnott Armstrong, Walter, “Weak and Strong Judicial Review”, Law and Philosophy, 22, 2003: 381-392.

 

Period 9: Criminal Law and Theories of Punishment

 

Reading assignments:

• Tebitt, Mark. “Responsibility and guilt”, in Philosophy of Law: an Introduction, London: Routledge, 2005: pp. 157-177.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Duff, Antony, “Theories of Criminal Law”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/criminal-law/

• Husak, Douglas, Overcriminalization, Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 3-33.

 

Topics for discussion: Are we criminalizing too much? Are we punishing too much?

 

Period 10: Paternalism, Perfectionism, and the Limits to State Intervention

 

Reading assignments:

• Dworkin, Gerald, “Paternalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paternalism/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Husak, Douglas, “Four Points About Drug Legalization”, Criminal Justice Ethics, Winter/Spring 2003: pp. 21-29.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we decriminalize drugs?

 

 

PART III: THEORIES OF JUSTICE

 

 

Period 11: Theories of justice 1: Utilitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 1 and 2, pp. 3-57.

• Sandel on Torture: http://vimeo.com/52821463

 

Topic for discussion: Could torture be justifiable in some circumstances?

 

Period 12: Theories of justice 2: Liberal Egalitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 5 and 6, pp. 103-166.

 

Topic for discussion: Should natural lottery and tough luck be neutralized?

 

Period 13: Theories of justice 3: Libertarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 3, pp. 58-74.

• Sandel on markets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBv2ZGC2VI

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 4, pp. 75-102.

• Cohen, Gerald, “The Camping Trip”, in Why Not Socialism?, Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 1-11.

 

Topic for discussion: Are there any limits to markets?

 

Period 14: Theories of Justice 4: Communitarianism, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 9 and 10, pp. 208-271.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we protect the culture, language and practices of our communities?

 

Period 15: Theories of Justice 5: Republicanism

 

Reading assignments:

• Pettit, Philip, “Civic Republican Theory”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 2, pp. 31-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Pettit, Philip, “The Theory in Practice. Spain 2004-2008”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 1.

 

Topic for discussion: How can we change a culture of domination?

 

Period 16: Theories of Justice 6: Feminism

 

Reading assignments:

• McAfee, Noëlle, “Feminist Political Philosophy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-political/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• MacKinnon, Catherine, “Difference and Dominance: on Sex Discrimination”, in Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987: pp.32-45.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we have female quotas in parliaments, courts, and corporations?

 

Period 17: The promise of Basic Income

 

Formal debate: Should we implement a system of basic income in order to bring justice to our societies, especially considering the technological and economic changes that we expect to happen in the next decades?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the 21st Century”, Politics & Society 32(1), 2004: pp. 8-39.

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “The Euro-dividend”, manuscript, and read also this interview http://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/interview/van-parijs-an-unconditional-basic-income-in-europe-will-help-end-the-crisis/

•Henderson, David, “A Philosophical Economist’s Case against a Government-Guaranteed Basic Income”, The Independent Review, 19(4), 2015: 489-502.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Van Parijs, Philippe: Lecture on Universal Basic Income: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7nY0UWrSIA

 

 

 

PART IV: DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY AND THE GLOBAL ORDER

 

Period 18: Political Authority and Democratic Legitimacy

 

Reading assignments:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Democracy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Authority”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/authority/

 

Topic for discussion: Can technocratic institutions be legitimate?

 

Period 19: Policy Paper Presentations

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 20: Global Justice: World Poverty and Global Inequalities

 

Reading assignments:

• Risse, Mathias, Global Political Philosophy, Basignstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012: ch. 4, pp. 88-118.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Singer, Peter, The Life You Can Save, Random House, 2009, chaps. 1, 2 and 3, pp. 3-42.

• Blake, Michael, “International distributive justice”, Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, accessible at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/international-justice/

 

Topic for discussion: Have we duties of justice towards citizens of other countries?

 

Period 21: The Defense of National Sovereignty and National Democracies

 

Reading assignments:

• Miller, David, “Cosmopolitanism”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 377-392.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Alvarez, José E., “State Sovereignty is Not Withering Away: A Few Lessons For the Future”, in Antonio Cassese (ed.), Realizing Utopia, OUP, 2012, pp. 26-37.

 

Period 22: Models of Global Governance

 

Formal debate: How the global order should be designed to be legitimate? Should we try to create a global democracy?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dahl, Robert, “Can International Organizations be Democratic? A Skeptic’s View”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 423-434.

• Christiano, Thomas, “Is democratic legitimacy possible for international institutions?”, in Daniele Archibugi, Matthias Koenig-Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti (eds), Global Democracy. Normative and Empirical Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 69-95.

• Archibugi, Daniele, “Critical Debate on Cosmopolitan Democracy”, in The Global Commonwealth of Citizens, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 123-149.

• Falk, Richard and Andrew Strauss, “Toward Global Parliament”, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2001, pp. 212-220.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Barber, Benjamin, “Why Mayors Should Rule the World?”, TEDTalk, 2013: http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_barber_why_mayors_should_rule_the_world

 

 

Teaching Methods

Course workload:

 

1. Students are expected to attend the class periods having read in advance the assigned readings indicated below. They are also expected to engage and participate actively in the class’ informal discussions.

2. Students will have to write three discussion notes (or short papers) on three of the assigned readings during the course. Such notes will have to engage critically with the claims of the text, and will be due in different mid-term deadlines to be announced. The discussion notes’ length shall be of around 1,000 words each.

3. Students will also have to prepare and take part in at least one of the three class formal debates. They will have to argue for one of the positions in the debate, and to criticize the others’ views. They will be provided with specific readings and materials.

4. There will be no final exam. But students will be required to write and submit a final essay, in the form of a policy paper of around 4,000 words, or a research paper of around 5,000 words, on a topic related to any of the course’s contents. In this policy paper, the student will be asked to defend a proposal for the amendment of a concrete legislation or institution. If the student chooses to write a research paper, she will have to engage in some academic discussion, typically discussing some papers or positions that have been defended in academic literature.   

 

 

Evaluation

Assessment criteria:
Final assessment and grades will be distributed according to the following criteria:

 

Discussion notes: 30%

Final essay/policy paper: 40%

Video-presentation: 30%

Bibliography and information resources

See the weekly plan in the contents.


Academic Year/course: 2020/21

8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences

32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy


Informació de la Guia Docent

Academic Course:
2020/21
Academic Center:
807 - Masters Centre of the Department of Law
Study:
8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences
Subject:
32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy
Credits:
4.0
Course:
1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Group 2: English
Teachers:
Jose Luis Martí Màrmol, Jahel Queralt Lange
Teaching Period:
Second Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

Course focus and approach: This is a multidisciplinary course that aims to integrate the perspectives of law, political philosophy, international relations, and political science. It is an introduction to some of the most relevant problems that both politics and the law (particularly, public law) are facing in the 21st century. It focuses on the structure, aims, and content of public law, and the main discussions about its justice and legitimacy. It is not an aim of this course, therefore, to provide a deep understanding of a particular issue concerning public law, but a general landscape of the many issues involved in the idea of the law itself, and in its acceptability from a normative point of view. It will emphasize the importance of the new global scenario and the current digital transformations.

 

Course description: The course is divided into four parts, and 22 class periods. The first part will be just introductory, but it is an attempt to introduce the student to the new scenario in which the law, politics, and justice are placed. This new scenario is characterized mainly by two distinct but interrelated phenomena that, together, are profoundly changing our societies: globalization and the digital revolution.

 

The second part consists of an introduction to law, to its functions, to the idea of a rule of law, to its sources, the main law traditions, and the law branches. It continues with an introduction to constitutional law and criminal law, as two main branches of public law. And it also introduces the debate about the democratic legitimacy of jthe power of high courts and udicial review.

 

The third part concerns the theories of justice. It focuses on the main contemporary theories of justice, such as utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, republicanism, and feminism. And it includes the debate about the proposal of a Universal Basic Income.

 

The fourth and last part deals with political legitimacy, and mainly focuses on the application of our discussions about legitimacy and democracy to the global order. It embraces the main recent discussions about global justice, state sovereignty and global democracy. 

Associated skills

- Critican thinking

- Normative reasoning

- Creative research

- Academic writing

Learning outcomes

Learning objectives: The general aim of the course is to provide pre-law students with a general understanding of the law, particularly public law, at the light of the major normative challenges it must face in the 21st century. Besides this, the course adopts the following concrete learning objectives:

 

• The students must acquire a general understanding of what the law is, what is its usual content, what is the main role for public law in particular, and what are the main challenges that it faces in the 21st century, particularly those derived from globalization and the digital transformations.

• The students must learn the fundamentals of public law, and especially the constitutional essentials.

• The students must achieve a general knowledge and understanding of the main normative issues involved in current constitutional democracies, concerning questions of justice and legitimacy.

Prerequisites

None

Contents

The course is structured into 22 class periods of two hours each along 11 weeks, grouped into 4 parts. Every week there will be a general theme, a topic for discussion, and a list of required readings. 

 

 

 

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO A NEW SCENARIO

 

Period 1: Introduction: Law, Justice and Legitimacy

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 2: A New Global Scenario for Law and Politics

 

Reading Assignments:

• Held, David and Anthony McGrew, “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction”, in Held, David and Anthony McGrew (eds), The Global Transformations Reader, London: Polity Press, 2003, pp. 1-14 and 32-42.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Nye, Joseph. S., The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: chapters 2 and 3.

 

Topic for discussion: How is globalization affecting/changing our nation states?

 

Period 3: The Digital Revolution

 

Reading Assignments:

• Benkler, Yochai, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Have: Yale University Press, 2006: ch. 1, pp. 1-28.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Rheingold, Howard, Net Smart. How to Thrive Online, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 2012: introduction and chapters 4 and 5.

 

Topic for discussion: Will the new technologies change dramatically our political and legal institutions?

 

 

PART II: INTRODUCTION TO LAW

 

Period 4: The Law, Its Functions, and the Rule of Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Partington, M., “Law and society: the purposes and functions of law”, in Introduction to the English Legal System. 6th ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010: p.12-26.

 

Period 5: Legal Traditions, Sources of Law and Branches of the Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Wacks, Raymond, Law. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 1-28 and 36-66.

 

Topic for discussion: Should the rule of law be respected at any rate, even when the legal provisions to be enforced are unjust?

 

Period 6: Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights

 

Reading assignments:

• Barendt, Eric, Introduction to Constitutional Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998: chap.1, pp. 1-25.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Waluchow, Will, “Constitutionalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constitutionalism/

 

Period 7: Legal Interpretation and Legal Indeterminacy

 

Reading assignments:

Bobbitt, Philip, “Constitutional Law and Interpretation”, in Dennis M. Patterson (ed.), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

 

Topic for discussion: Does the American constitution prohibit death penalty? Isn’t it a cruel and unusual punishment?

 

Period 8: Constitutional Rigidity, Judicial Review and the Democratic Objection

 

Class formal debate: Is it legitimate that high courts may strike down democratic legislation passed by our parliaments?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dworkin, Ronald, Is Democracy Possible Here?, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006: chap. 5: pp. 127-159.

• Waldron, Jeremy, “The Core of the Case Against Judicial Review”, The Yale Law Journal, 115, 2006.

• Hirschl, Ran, “The Judicialization of Mega-Politics and the Rise of Political Courts”, Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 2008, pp. 93-118.

• Ferreres, Victor, “A Defense of Constitutional Rigidity”, Analisi e Diritto, 2000: pp. 45-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Martí, José Luis, “Is Constitutional Rigidity the Problem? Democratic Legitimacy and the Last Word”, Ratio Juris, 2014, pp. 550-558.

• Sinnott Armstrong, Walter, “Weak and Strong Judicial Review”, Law and Philosophy, 22, 2003: 381-392.

 

Period 9: Criminal Law and Theories of Punishment

 

Reading assignments:

• Tebitt, Mark. “Responsibility and guilt”, in Philosophy of Law: an Introduction, London: Routledge, 2005: pp. 157-177.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Duff, Antony, “Theories of Criminal Law”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/criminal-law/

• Husak, Douglas, Overcriminalization, Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 3-33.

 

Topics for discussion: Are we criminalizing too much? Are we punishing too much?

 

Period 10: Paternalism, Perfectionism, and the Limits to State Intervention

 

Reading assignments:

• Dworkin, Gerald, “Paternalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paternalism/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Husak, Douglas, “Four Points About Drug Legalization”, Criminal Justice Ethics, Winter/Spring 2003: pp. 21-29.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we decriminalize drugs?

 

 

PART III: THEORIES OF JUSTICE

 

 

Period 11: Theories of justice 1: Utilitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 1 and 2, pp. 3-57.

• Sandel on Torture: http://vimeo.com/52821463

 

Topic for discussion: Could torture be justifiable in some circumstances?

 

Period 12: Theories of justice 2: Liberal Egalitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 5 and 6, pp. 103-166.

 

Topic for discussion: Should natural lottery and tough luck be neutralized?

 

Period 13: Theories of justice 3: Libertarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 3, pp. 58-74.

• Sandel on markets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBv2ZGC2VI

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 4, pp. 75-102.

• Cohen, Gerald, “The Camping Trip”, in Why Not Socialism?, Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 1-11.

 

Topic for discussion: Are there any limits to markets?

 

Period 14: Theories of Justice 4: Communitarianism, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 9 and 10, pp. 208-271.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we protect the culture, language and practices of our communities?

 

Period 15: Theories of Justice 5: Republicanism

 

Reading assignments:

• Pettit, Philip, “Civic Republican Theory”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 2, pp. 31-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Pettit, Philip, “The Theory in Practice. Spain 2004-2008”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 1.

 

Topic for discussion: How can we change a culture of domination?

 

Period 16: Theories of Justice 6: Feminism

 

Reading assignments:

• McAfee, Noëlle, “Feminist Political Philosophy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-political/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• MacKinnon, Catherine, “Difference and Dominance: on Sex Discrimination”, in Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987: pp.32-45.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we have female quotas in parliaments, courts, and corporations?

 

Period 17: The promise of Basic Income

 

Formal debate: Should we implement a system of basic income in order to bring justice to our societies, especially considering the technological and economic changes that we expect to happen in the next decades?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the 21st Century”, Politics & Society 32(1), 2004: pp. 8-39.

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “The Euro-dividend”, manuscript, and read also this interview http://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/interview/van-parijs-an-unconditional-basic-income-in-europe-will-help-end-the-crisis/

•Henderson, David, “A Philosophical Economist’s Case against a Government-Guaranteed Basic Income”, The Independent Review, 19(4), 2015: 489-502.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Van Parijs, Philippe: Lecture on Universal Basic Income: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7nY0UWrSIA

 

 

 

PART IV: DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY AND THE GLOBAL ORDER

 

Period 18: Political Authority and Democratic Legitimacy

 

Reading assignments:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Democracy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Authority”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/authority/

 

Topic for discussion: Can technocratic institutions be legitimate?

 

Period 19: Policy Paper Presentations

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 20: Global Justice: World Poverty and Global Inequalities

 

Reading assignments:

• Risse, Mathias, Global Political Philosophy, Basignstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012: ch. 4, pp. 88-118.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Singer, Peter, The Life You Can Save, Random House, 2009, chaps. 1, 2 and 3, pp. 3-42.

• Blake, Michael, “International distributive justice”, Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, accessible at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/international-justice/

 

Topic for discussion: Have we duties of justice towards citizens of other countries?

 

Period 21: The Defense of National Sovereignty and National Democracies

 

Reading assignments:

• Miller, David, “Cosmopolitanism”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 377-392.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Alvarez, José E., “State Sovereignty is Not Withering Away: A Few Lessons For the Future”, in Antonio Cassese (ed.), Realizing Utopia, OUP, 2012, pp. 26-37.

 

Period 22: Models of Global Governance

 

Formal debate: How the global order should be designed to be legitimate? Should we try to create a global democracy?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dahl, Robert, “Can International Organizations be Democratic? A Skeptic’s View”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 423-434.

• Christiano, Thomas, “Is democratic legitimacy possible for international institutions?”, in Daniele Archibugi, Matthias Koenig-Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti (eds), Global Democracy. Normative and Empirical Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 69-95.

• Archibugi, Daniele, “Critical Debate on Cosmopolitan Democracy”, in The Global Commonwealth of Citizens, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 123-149.

• Falk, Richard and Andrew Strauss, “Toward Global Parliament”, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2001, pp. 212-220.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Barber, Benjamin, “Why Mayors Should Rule the World?”, TEDTalk, 2013: http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_barber_why_mayors_should_rule_the_world

 

 

Teaching Methods

Course workload:

 

1. Students are expected to attend the class periods having read in advance the assigned readings indicated below. They are also expected to engage and participate actively in the class’ informal discussions.

2. Students will have to write three discussion notes (or short papers) on three of the assigned readings during the course. Such notes will have to engage critically with the claims of the text, and will be due in different mid-term deadlines to be announced. The discussion notes’ length shall be of around 1,000 words each.

3. Students will also have to prepare and take part in at least one of the three class formal debates. They will have to argue for one of the positions in the debate, and to criticize the others’ views. They will be provided with specific readings and materials.

4. There will be no final exam. But students will be required to write and submit a final essay, in the form of a policy paper of around 4,000 words, or a research paper of around 5,000 words, on a topic related to any of the course’s contents. In this policy paper, the student will be asked to defend a proposal for the amendment of a concrete legislation or institution. If the student chooses to write a research paper, she will have to engage in some academic discussion, typically discussing some papers or positions that have been defended in academic literature.   

 

 

Evaluation

Assessment criteria:
Final assessment and grades will be distributed according to the following criteria:

 

Discussion notes: 30%

Final essay/policy paper: 40%

Video-presentation: 30%

Bibliography and information resources

See the weekly plan in the contents.


Academic Year/course: 2020/21

8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences

32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy


Información de la Guía Docente

Academic Course:
2020/21
Academic Center:
807 - Masters Centre of the Department of Law
Study:
8071 - Advanced Master in Legal Sciences
Subject:
32063 - Global Law, Justice and Democracy
Credits:
4.0
Course:
1
Teaching languages:
Theory: Group 1: English
Group 2: English
Teachers:
Jose Luis Martí Màrmol, Jahel Queralt Lange
Teaching Period:
Second Quarter
Schedule:

Presentation

Course focus and approach: This is a multidisciplinary course that aims to integrate the perspectives of law, political philosophy, international relations, and political science. It is an introduction to some of the most relevant problems that both politics and the law (particularly, public law) are facing in the 21st century. It focuses on the structure, aims, and content of public law, and the main discussions about its justice and legitimacy. It is not an aim of this course, therefore, to provide a deep understanding of a particular issue concerning public law, but a general landscape of the many issues involved in the idea of the law itself, and in its acceptability from a normative point of view. It will emphasize the importance of the new global scenario and the current digital transformations.

 

Course description: The course is divided into four parts, and 22 class periods. The first part will be just introductory, but it is an attempt to introduce the student to the new scenario in which the law, politics, and justice are placed. This new scenario is characterized mainly by two distinct but interrelated phenomena that, together, are profoundly changing our societies: globalization and the digital revolution.

 

The second part consists of an introduction to law, to its functions, to the idea of a rule of law, to its sources, the main law traditions, and the law branches. It continues with an introduction to constitutional law and criminal law, as two main branches of public law. And it also introduces the debate about the democratic legitimacy of jthe power of high courts and udicial review.

 

The third part concerns the theories of justice. It focuses on the main contemporary theories of justice, such as utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, republicanism, and feminism. And it includes the debate about the proposal of a Universal Basic Income.

 

The fourth and last part deals with political legitimacy, and mainly focuses on the application of our discussions about legitimacy and democracy to the global order. It embraces the main recent discussions about global justice, state sovereignty and global democracy. 

Associated skills

- Critican thinking

- Normative reasoning

- Creative research

- Academic writing

Learning outcomes

Learning objectives: The general aim of the course is to provide pre-law students with a general understanding of the law, particularly public law, at the light of the major normative challenges it must face in the 21st century. Besides this, the course adopts the following concrete learning objectives:

 

• The students must acquire a general understanding of what the law is, what is its usual content, what is the main role for public law in particular, and what are the main challenges that it faces in the 21st century, particularly those derived from globalization and the digital transformations.

• The students must learn the fundamentals of public law, and especially the constitutional essentials.

• The students must achieve a general knowledge and understanding of the main normative issues involved in current constitutional democracies, concerning questions of justice and legitimacy.

Prerequisites

None

Contents

The course is structured into 22 class periods of two hours each along 11 weeks, grouped into 4 parts. Every week there will be a general theme, a topic for discussion, and a list of required readings. 

 

 

 

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO A NEW SCENARIO

 

Period 1: Introduction: Law, Justice and Legitimacy

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 2: A New Global Scenario for Law and Politics

 

Reading Assignments:

• Held, David and Anthony McGrew, “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction”, in Held, David and Anthony McGrew (eds), The Global Transformations Reader, London: Polity Press, 2003, pp. 1-14 and 32-42.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Nye, Joseph. S., The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: chapters 2 and 3.

 

Topic for discussion: How is globalization affecting/changing our nation states?

 

Period 3: The Digital Revolution

 

Reading Assignments:

• Benkler, Yochai, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Have: Yale University Press, 2006: ch. 1, pp. 1-28.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Rheingold, Howard, Net Smart. How to Thrive Online, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 2012: introduction and chapters 4 and 5.

 

Topic for discussion: Will the new technologies change dramatically our political and legal institutions?

 

 

PART II: INTRODUCTION TO LAW

 

Period 4: The Law, Its Functions, and the Rule of Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Partington, M., “Law and society: the purposes and functions of law”, in Introduction to the English Legal System. 6th ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010: p.12-26.

 

Period 5: Legal Traditions, Sources of Law and Branches of the Law

 

Reading assignments:

• Wacks, Raymond, Law. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 1-28 and 36-66.

 

Topic for discussion: Should the rule of law be respected at any rate, even when the legal provisions to be enforced are unjust?

 

Period 6: Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights

 

Reading assignments:

• Barendt, Eric, Introduction to Constitutional Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998: chap.1, pp. 1-25.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Waluchow, Will, “Constitutionalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constitutionalism/

 

Period 7: Legal Interpretation and Legal Indeterminacy

 

Reading assignments:

Bobbitt, Philip, “Constitutional Law and Interpretation”, in Dennis M. Patterson (ed.), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

 

Topic for discussion: Does the American constitution prohibit death penalty? Isn’t it a cruel and unusual punishment?

 

Period 8: Constitutional Rigidity, Judicial Review and the Democratic Objection

 

Class formal debate: Is it legitimate that high courts may strike down democratic legislation passed by our parliaments?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dworkin, Ronald, Is Democracy Possible Here?, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006: chap. 5: pp. 127-159.

• Waldron, Jeremy, “The Core of the Case Against Judicial Review”, The Yale Law Journal, 115, 2006.

• Hirschl, Ran, “The Judicialization of Mega-Politics and the Rise of Political Courts”, Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 2008, pp. 93-118.

• Ferreres, Victor, “A Defense of Constitutional Rigidity”, Analisi e Diritto, 2000: pp. 45-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Martí, José Luis, “Is Constitutional Rigidity the Problem? Democratic Legitimacy and the Last Word”, Ratio Juris, 2014, pp. 550-558.

• Sinnott Armstrong, Walter, “Weak and Strong Judicial Review”, Law and Philosophy, 22, 2003: 381-392.

 

Period 9: Criminal Law and Theories of Punishment

 

Reading assignments:

• Tebitt, Mark. “Responsibility and guilt”, in Philosophy of Law: an Introduction, London: Routledge, 2005: pp. 157-177.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Duff, Antony, “Theories of Criminal Law”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/criminal-law/

• Husak, Douglas, Overcriminalization, Oxford University Press, 2008: pp. 3-33.

 

Topics for discussion: Are we criminalizing too much? Are we punishing too much?

 

Period 10: Paternalism, Perfectionism, and the Limits to State Intervention

 

Reading assignments:

• Dworkin, Gerald, “Paternalism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paternalism/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Husak, Douglas, “Four Points About Drug Legalization”, Criminal Justice Ethics, Winter/Spring 2003: pp. 21-29.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we decriminalize drugs?

 

 

PART III: THEORIES OF JUSTICE

 

 

Period 11: Theories of justice 1: Utilitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 1 and 2, pp. 3-57.

• Sandel on Torture: http://vimeo.com/52821463

 

Topic for discussion: Could torture be justifiable in some circumstances?

 

Period 12: Theories of justice 2: Liberal Egalitarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chaps. 5 and 6, pp. 103-166.

 

Topic for discussion: Should natural lottery and tough luck be neutralized?

 

Period 13: Theories of justice 3: Libertarianism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 3, pp. 58-74.

• Sandel on markets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBv2ZGC2VI

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 4, pp. 75-102.

• Cohen, Gerald, “The Camping Trip”, in Why Not Socialism?, Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 1-11.

 

Topic for discussion: Are there any limits to markets?

 

Period 14: Theories of Justice 4: Communitarianism, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism

 

Reading assignments:

• Sandel, Michael, Justice. What’s the Right Thing to Do?, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giraux, 2009: chapter 9 and 10, pp. 208-271.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we protect the culture, language and practices of our communities?

 

Period 15: Theories of Justice 5: Republicanism

 

Reading assignments:

• Pettit, Philip, “Civic Republican Theory”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 2, pp. 31-68.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Pettit, Philip, “The Theory in Practice. Spain 2004-2008”, in José Luis Martí and Philip Pettit, A Political Philosophy in Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009: chap. 1.

 

Topic for discussion: How can we change a culture of domination?

 

Period 16: Theories of Justice 6: Feminism

 

Reading assignments:

• McAfee, Noëlle, “Feminist Political Philosophy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-political/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• MacKinnon, Catherine, “Difference and Dominance: on Sex Discrimination”, in Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987: pp.32-45.

 

Topic for discussion: Should we have female quotas in parliaments, courts, and corporations?

 

Period 17: The promise of Basic Income

 

Formal debate: Should we implement a system of basic income in order to bring justice to our societies, especially considering the technological and economic changes that we expect to happen in the next decades?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the 21st Century”, Politics & Society 32(1), 2004: pp. 8-39.

•Van Parijs, Philippe, “The Euro-dividend”, manuscript, and read also this interview http://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/interview/van-parijs-an-unconditional-basic-income-in-europe-will-help-end-the-crisis/

•Henderson, David, “A Philosophical Economist’s Case against a Government-Guaranteed Basic Income”, The Independent Review, 19(4), 2015: 489-502.

 

Further Optional Reading:

•Van Parijs, Philippe: Lecture on Universal Basic Income: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7nY0UWrSIA

 

 

 

PART IV: DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY AND THE GLOBAL ORDER

 

Period 18: Political Authority and Democratic Legitimacy

 

Reading assignments:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Democracy”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Christiano, Thomas, “Authority”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/authority/

 

Topic for discussion: Can technocratic institutions be legitimate?

 

Period 19: Policy Paper Presentations

 

No readings assigned

 

Period 20: Global Justice: World Poverty and Global Inequalities

 

Reading assignments:

• Risse, Mathias, Global Political Philosophy, Basignstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012: ch. 4, pp. 88-118.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Singer, Peter, The Life You Can Save, Random House, 2009, chaps. 1, 2 and 3, pp. 3-42.

• Blake, Michael, “International distributive justice”, Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, accessible at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/international-justice/

 

Topic for discussion: Have we duties of justice towards citizens of other countries?

 

Period 21: The Defense of National Sovereignty and National Democracies

 

Reading assignments:

• Miller, David, “Cosmopolitanism”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 377-392.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Alvarez, José E., “State Sovereignty is Not Withering Away: A Few Lessons For the Future”, in Antonio Cassese (ed.), Realizing Utopia, OUP, 2012, pp. 26-37.

 

Period 22: Models of Global Governance

 

Formal debate: How the global order should be designed to be legitimate? Should we try to create a global democracy?

 

Reading assignments to be distributed among the participants in the debate:

• Dahl, Robert, “Can International Organizations be Democratic? A Skeptic’s View”, in Brown, Garrett Wallace and David Held (eds), The Cosmopolitanism Reader, London: Polity Press, 2010, pp. 423-434.

• Christiano, Thomas, “Is democratic legitimacy possible for international institutions?”, in Daniele Archibugi, Matthias Koenig-Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti (eds), Global Democracy. Normative and Empirical Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 69-95.

• Archibugi, Daniele, “Critical Debate on Cosmopolitan Democracy”, in The Global Commonwealth of Citizens, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 123-149.

• Falk, Richard and Andrew Strauss, “Toward Global Parliament”, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2001, pp. 212-220.

 

Further Optional Reading:

• Barber, Benjamin, “Why Mayors Should Rule the World?”, TEDTalk, 2013: http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_barber_why_mayors_should_rule_the_world

 

 

Teaching Methods

Course workload:

 

1. Students are expected to attend the class periods having read in advance the assigned readings indicated below. They are also expected to engage and participate actively in the class’ informal discussions.

2. Students will have to write three discussion notes (or short papers) on three of the assigned readings during the course. Such notes will have to engage critically with the claims of the text, and will be due in different mid-term deadlines to be announced. The discussion notes’ length shall be of around 1,000 words each.

3. Students will also have to prepare and take part in at least one of the three class formal debates. They will have to argue for one of the positions in the debate, and to criticize the others’ views. They will be provided with specific readings and materials.

4. There will be no final exam. But students will be required to write and submit a final essay, in the form of a policy paper of around 4,000 words, or a research paper of around 5,000 words, on a topic related to any of the course’s contents. In this policy paper, the student will be asked to defend a proposal for the amendment of a concrete legislation or institution. If the student chooses to write a research paper, she will have to engage in some academic discussion, typically discussing some papers or positions that have been defended in academic literature.   

 

 

Evaluation

Assessment criteria:
Final assessment and grades will be distributed according to the following criteria:

 

Discussion notes: 30%

Final essay/policy paper: 40%

Video-presentation: 30%

Bibliography and information resources

See the weekly plan in the contents.