HANDOUTS AND NOTES

• 1. Syllabus - - Part One.
  

• 2. Why Study Law? - - Many of the most troubling moral and political issues that we face are addressed in our society as legal issues.

• 3. Law As the "Tie That Binds." - - Sociologists write about the fragmentation of contemporary American life and bemoan the loss of a strong sense of community, but our laws accompanied by the opinions delivered daily in our courts tell a different story.

• 4. Defining Crime. - - In an introduction to a course on the Philosophy of Law, it might be helpful to say something at the outset - right "off the bat" - about the nature of law and, more particularly, about crime.

• 5. What's Wrong with Definitions? - - The problems we face trying to define "theft" or "crime" or "the law" may be a consequence of a more general problem we have with defining anything, anything at all.

• 6. What Makes Something a Crime? - - What then makes something a crime?

• 7. Actus Reus and Mens Rea - - Still, despite the exceptions, most crimes require the presence of a bad act and a guilty mind.

• 8. There Is More To Murder Than Killing Someone. - - So the notion of a crime is inextricably bound up with our being able to show that the accused performed a bad act and did so with a guilty mind.

• 9. Finding One's Way About - - Understanding what makes something a crime is more like knowing the rules of a game and what moves to make at critical points in the game than it is a matter of definition,.

• 10. Reading - - Part One
  

• 11. Twenty-One Legal Puzzlers
  

• 12. The Case of the Speluncean Explorers
  

• 13. The William Brown, 1841 (United States v. Holmes)
  

• 14. The Mignonette, 1884 (Queen v. Dudley)
  

• 15. Has a Person Who Breaks the Law out of "Necessity" Committed a Crime?
  

• 16. Necessity: Model Penal Code, Section 3.02 (1) (a)
  

• 17. Bernhard Goetz and the Crimnal Law
  

• 18. Defining Criminal Behavior
  

• 19. Justifications and Excuses
  

• 20. Glossary: "Acquittal - Holding"
  

• 21. Glossary: "Homicide - Probation"
  

• 22. Glossary: "Proceeding - Verdict"

Prepared: January 9, 2004 - 5:02:29 PM
Edited and Updated, January 14, 2004
Web Page Created by Andreas Teuber