Teoría del Derecho (GED70030)

General information

Type:	OB	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	6 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: A	César Arjona Sebastià	Derecho	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: B	Juan Carlos Quero Navarro	Derecho	ESP

Proposed training activities:
- Classroom activities: approximately 25% of credits
- Guided activities: approximately 25% of credits
- Independent study: approximately 50% of credits

Theory of Law is a course founded on a basic methodology that analyses the legal phenomenon in a non-dogmatic way that is open to interdisciplinary approaches. It thereby provides the relevant analytical tools for any specific legal ordinance.

Scheduled appropriately in the second semester of the Bachelor in Law programme this course provides students with the necessary conceptual tools to rigorously develop and take advantage of their legal studies, as well as prepare themselves for ongoing professional development throughout their career.

The student should be capable of:
- Reading and understanding a legal text of moderate complexity.
- Using basic legal language with rigour.
- Identifying the principal interactions between the legal system and the wider social reality it is a part of, above all by distinguishing Law from other normative phenomena and having both a knowledge of the social functions of Law and an awareness of the relationships between Law and Justice.
- Understanding the principal features of legal regulations and the legal system and identify them in practice.
- Understanding the basic techniques used in legal arguments.
- Being capable of undertaking a critical-argument based analysis of a legal text.

21. To acquire values and ethic principles

1. Section 1. Initial approach to the legal phenomenon. In section 1, 'Initial approach to the legal phenomenon', an exhaustive focus will centre on a classical educational text: the case of the cave explorers by Lon Fuller. The aim is to provide an initial approach to Law that requires no prior technical knowledge. Consequently, this section can have an intuitive and even emotional component. The key questions that students will address during the classes will not necessarily be resolved in this section but in the second section that follows, the first section laying the groundwork for the second. Methodology: the majority of sessions in this section will consist of Socratic discussions in small groups. Students will have to individually read a legal sentence prior to the class and then discuss it. Classes are structured as dialogues between the students. The aim is to ensure that they have understood the legal sentence and can critically analyse it. In the last session, faculty will attempt to resolve any unanswered questions the groups have, serving to prepare for the following section in which these questions will again be addressed in a systematic fashion. 1.1 Introduction to the case study: Analysis of the facts. 1.2 Discussion of legal decisions. 1.3 Conclusion: Conceptions of Law

2. Section 2. General Theory of Law In section 2, 'General theory of Law', a systematic study of the principal questions of the subject is undertaken, and will include the relationships between Law and society, the theory of legal regulation and the theory of legal ordinance. It corresponds in significant ways with the habitual topics of traditional Theory of Law courses. Methodology: This section is focused on the acquisition of knowledge and employs a lecture based method focused on the relevant materials for each topic. It also requires students to undertake prior independent study. In the lecture classes faculty will highlight the topic's most important concepts and integrate them into the course's broader scope. It is essential that students undertake an exhaustive study of the course materials and not limit themselves to what is said in class. For this reason the texts have been carefully selected so that they are directly relevant for the topic being studied and accessible in so far as content and length. It is highly recommended that students read up on the relevant topic prior to the lecture class as this will allow them to take greater advantage of the class. The lecture classes in this section are complemented with group work sessions aimed at consolidating the basic concepts through discussion of short texts. 2.1 Law and its context 2.1.1. Three-dimensional concept of Law 2.1.2. Law, power, State 2.1.3. Law and morality 2.1.4. The social functions of Law 2.2. Theory of legal regulations 2.2.1. Structure of legal regulations 2.2.2. Conceptions of legal regulations 2.2.3. Types of legal regulations 2.3 Theory of legal ordinance 2.3.1. Characteristics of legal ordinance: unity, coherence and plenitude 2.3.2. Creation of Law: sources of Law 2.3.3. Application of Law: reasoning and interpretation.

3. Section 3. Legal reasoning In section 3, 'Legal reasoning', a general introduction to reasoning will be provided, with a special focus on its application in the legal context. This part will essentially be practical, and the range of basic rules of reasoning will be studied. Practical exercises will be undertaken to learn how to use these rules, and these will also serve to test the knowledge acquired in the previous section. Methodology: following an introductory session this section will be developed through activities completed in small groups. The students will have to study the catalogue of rules of reasoning, and these will then be put into practice in the group work sessions by completing exercises. 3.1 Introduction to reasoning 3.2 Study of basic reasoning rules 3.3 Application of reasoning rules: text analyses

The course is organised into three content sections.

Section 1. Initial approach to the legal phenomenon.
Section 2. General theory of Law.
Section 3. Legal reasoning.

In section 1, 'Initial approach to the legal phenomenon', an exhaustive focus will be made on a classical educational text: the case of the cave explorers by Lon Fuller. The aim is to provide an initial approach to Law, that requires no prior technical knowledge, and so this section can have an intuitive and even emotional nature. The key questions that students will address during the classes will not necessarily be resolved in this section, but in the second section that follows on from it, and which these questions lay the groundwork for.

Methodology: the majority of the sessions in this section will be of a Socratic nature with students working in small groups. The students will have to have read beforehand the Judge's decision to be discussed in the class. The class will be organised as a dialogue between the students in which both the understanding of the text and how to analyse it critically are addressed. With regard to the latter all the questions that remain unresolved in the different groups will be noted down together and this will provide a basis for preparation of the second part of the section which will address them again in a systematic way.

In section 2, 'General theory of Law', a systematic study of the principal questions of the subject is undertaken, and will include the relationships between Law and society, the theory of legal regulation and the theory of legal ordinance. It corresponds in significant ways with the habitual topics of traditional theory of Law courses.

Methodology: This section is focused on the acquisition of knowledge and employs a lecture based method focused on the relevant materials for each topic, which students should undertake independent study of. In the lecture classes the lecturer will highlight the topic's most important concepts and integrate them into the course's broader scope. It is fundamental that students undertake an exhaustive study of the course materials and not limit themselves to what is said in class. For this reason the texts have been carefully selected so that they are directly relevant for the topic being studied and accessible in so far as content and length. It is highly recommendable that students read up on the relevant topic prior to the lecture class as this will allow them to take greater advantage of the class. In addition, there will be group sessions in this section with a practical focus and aimed at consolidating the basic subject concepts through discussion of short texts.

In section 3, 'Legal reasoning', a general introduction to reasoning will be provided and applied to the legal context. This part will essentially be practical, and the range of basic rules of reasoning will be studied. Practical exercises will be undertaken to learn how to use these rules and these will also serve to test the knowledge acquired in the previous section.

Methodology: this section will be developed through activities completed in small groups. The students will have to study the catalogue of rules of reasoning and logical fallacies. These will then be put into practice in the group work sessions by completing exercises.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

The basic texts for studying this course are the following:

Section 1. Lon Fuller: 'El caso de los exploradores de cavernas' (Abeledo-Perrot).
Section 2. Relevant topics in:
- Manuel Atienza, El sentido del Derecho (Ariel, 2001).
- Gregorio Peces-Barba (ed.), Curso de Teoría del Derecho (Marcial Pons, 2000).
- Norberto Bobbio, El positivismo jurídico (Debate, 1993).
Section 3. Anthony Weston, Las claves de la argumentación (Ariel, 2001).

Students will be provided with the section 1 text via the course webpage. All the others may be found in the Law School library. During the course information will be provided regarding which chapters in the textbooks are most appropriate for studying the course topics.

Group	Teacher	Department
Sec: A	César Arjona Sebastià	Derecho

Group	Teacher	Department
Sec: B	Juan Carlos Quero Navarro	Derecho