DDRO 27A67 - Law, Emotions and Politics

Since Aristotle, law and justice are most often defined as rational; they are opposed to passions and emotions.

However, the shortcomings of legal positivism, and the development of socio-legal studies have lead lawyers, philosophers, and political scientists to reexamine the value of emotions in law.

Their research allows us to look at law, in general, as benefiting from a not-purely rational approach; in particular, some contemporary issues of law underline the specific relation of law with certain emotions – such as shame, disgust, fear, joy, sense of security, etc.

It also suggests the existence of purely legal emotions that people may experience only insofar as they have an intimate relationship to their polity.

ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

By surveying some aspects of the relationship between emotions and the law, this course seeks to provide students with up-to-date conceptual tools to approach the issue of populism from a legal standpoint.

A major methodological goal for the class is the acquisition of text-analysis skills in the field of legal literature.

Class participation 15%

Starting week 3, students are expected to come to class with a very concise outline of a text commentary on each reading. They will be randomly called on to explain the way they would approach a commentary of the text discussed.