Course Formative Objectives

 To provide students with a knowledge of the main theories of law, such as Legal Positivism, Realism, and of the legal reasoning.

By the end of the course, the student should be able to reach the following aims:

• The capability to precisely understand what law is and its function and the difference from what law ought to be.
• The capablity to better apply different kinds of rational reasoning to legal reasoning, in order to pinpoint which argument is surely valid, which one is deceptive and which one is valid only to a probabilistic extent.

Course Contents

• Introduction to Hans Kelsen and Legal Positivism.
• Analysis of Realism: features and critiques.
• The problems of doctrine of Natural Law.
• Deduction and Abduction in legal reasoning.
• Analysis of Law and Economics.

For the purpose of passing the exam, students are required to study the book "Introduction to the problems of legal theory" by Hans Kelsen, until page 36 and the teaching materials provided on this platform.