Research Degrees

Members of the center may be available to supervise Ph.D.'s or J.S.D.'s in the philosophy of law. For more details consult:

Philosophy Department (Ph.D.)
Law School (J.S.D.)

Courses Offered this Year

Philosophy of the Common Law: Seminar (20399) Fall 2005 (J. L. Coleman)

Advanced Topics in the Philosophy of Law and Ethics (21505) Spring 2006 (J. L. Coleman and S. Kagan)
This seminar is student-centered and will meet for fourteen weeks. In the first week the class will discuss a paper by Professor Kagan. That discussion will begin with a summary by the other professor who will then lead the student discussion. The second week will reverse the order. Thereafter, the seminar will proceed as follows: We will have a number of professors visiting the seminar. Each will submit to the class a recent, not yet published paper, which will be made available on this website. One week, we will have a general class discussion of the paper and related materials. The next week the author of the paper will come to the seminar, and there will be a dialog between the students and the author. Professors Coleman and Kagan will lead those discussions, but the emphasis will be on student participation. Students will be required to write reaction papers during the between the initial discussion of a paper and the author’s discussion/presentation of it. One copy of these papers will be given to the author, the other to the professors.

Speaker Schedule

Jan. 24th -- Shelly Kagan
Jan. 31st -- Daniel Priel
Feb. 7th -- Steve Darwall
Feb. 14th -- Scott Shapiro
Feb. 21st -- Stephen Perry
Feb. 28th -- Mark Greenberg
Mar. 21st -- Rob Kar
Mar. 28th -- Gideon Rosen
Apr. 3rd -- Jules Coleman
Apr. 11th -- Ori Simchen & Jules Coleman
Apr. 18th -- Paul Boghossian

Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (21275) Spring 2006 (J. L. Coleman)
This introduction to the philosophy of law will cover three different kinds of topics: (1) the nature of law and of legal authority; (2) the philosophy of particular areas of law, e.g., torts, contracts, and criminal law; (3) issues pertaining to the intersection of political and legal philosophy, e.g., rights, justice, political authority. This course will meet on the Yale College calendar and will be available to undergraduates (through the philosophy department), graduate students, and law students. Self-scheduled examination for law students.