Learning Outcomes
The main objective of the course is, through constant reference to the general legal knowledge available to students, to bring out, systematize and critically examine the orderly course of the work of interpreting and applying the law. The aim here is to make clear the argumentative nature of this elaborate legal practice as well as the need for an ultimate grounding of legal judgements on moral and political principles, so to make also clear and conscious the special social responsibility that befits all legal practitioners.
Course Content (Syllabus)
The course focuses on justification in legal reasoning. Therefore, it is divided in two parts. The first one deals with a set of philosophical preconditions : what makes legal argumentation just, the nature of legal language, the question of legal syllogism. The second part examines questions of method in legal argumentation : nature of legal interpretation, classical methods of legal interpretation, ways of substantive justification, gaps and antinomies in legal order.
Keywords
jurisprudence, legal method, legal interpretation, legal argumentation, justice, morality, Kant
Additional bibliography for study
Κώστας Μ. Σταμάτης, Σχολιασμός δικαστικών αποφάσεων. Θεωρία, τεχνική, παραδείγματα. εκδ. Σάκκουλα, Αθήνα-Θεσ/νίκη 2009,β΄έκδοση.
Παύλος Κ. Σούρλας, Justi atque injusti scientia. Μια εισαγωγή στην επιστήμη του δικαίου. εκδ. Αντ. Σάκκουλα, Αθήνα-Κομοτηνή 1995.