Detailed analysis of Hart-Fuller debate on Rule of Law (including Raz's view), a critique of legalism (Marxism, Robert Cover, Judith Shklar).

Detailed analysis of law and adjudication : Radical Scepticism (Singer); The Positivist Response: Partial Constraint (Hart, Raz;, Interpretation, Coherence (MacCormick), and the ‘One Right Answer’ Thesis (Dworkin); Incommensurability (Finnis) and Pluralism (Sunstein)

Detailed analysis of Hobbes' social contract, where a government is justified because without it we will destroy each other.

Detailed analysis of Kant's social contract, where the government is justified because it is required by our nature as free and rational beings.

Detailed analysis of Rawls and Political Liberalism, the role of the overlapping consensus and public reason in fostering a sense of justice.

Detailed analysis of Rousseau's concept of republicanism, where freedom is expressed through conformity with the ‘general will’.

Detailed analysis of Hannah Arendt's concept of the political, and in particular the notion of ‘political freedom’, as well as consider what new perspective on law this demands.

Hobbes - government is justified because without it we will destroy each other. What reason do you have to agree to be subject to government and its laws? Isn’t it much better to be free and do your own thing? Hobbes made a name for himself by arguing that if you were free of government, chances are that you would not be able to do your own thing at all. Without government, there’s nothing stopping others from killing you, or taking what you possess, or bursting your balloon. You and everyon...

Dworkin argues that Hart’s descriptive theory fails because it can’t explain the way we really talk about law. Hart’s theory, he says, implies that we share core criteria for determining what law is, and the disagreements that remain are over borderline issues.