KDEC 9845 - Fundamentals of Legal Hermeneutics

This course on the fundamentals of hermeneutics aims at raising students’ aware-ness for the main modes of reading of legal texts. It aims to show that the finding of all the possible meanings generated by legal texts depends less on a method of interpretation than on a specific mode of reading. This course stands out in comparison to other courses on hermeneutics and theories of interpretation, for it emphasizes modes of readings as the primary tools to generate meaning. In doing so, this course will provide some key reading tools as they have been developed by authors like Barthes, Derrida, Saïd, Butler, White, Lacan, Althusser, Deleuze, Agamben, Felski, etc. The course will end with our now famous “Law and Star Wars” (Law and Pop Culture). It is important that students realise that this course is demanding in terms of theory as it requires engagement with philosophy, critical thought, cultural studies, literary theory, etc.

Students will write an essay (3500 words excluding footnotes) (30% of the grade according to the new Sciences Po marking policy). Further guidelines about the essay will be provided in class.

Oral exams will be carried out by the lecturers on the occasion of which students will present and discuss the content of the papers (70% of the grade according to the new Sciences Po marking policy). Guidelines for the oral exams will be provided in class.