Introduction to Law

2020/2021

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

4

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент теории права и сравнительного правоведения

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватели

Вандышева Елена Александровна

Гриц Дмитрий Сергеевич

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Studying Jurisprudence students will learn to reflect in a critical way on the functions and meaning of legal systems and legal institutions. We will discuss relation between law and politics, economy and morality. The course content will cover most common problems in the legal theory and practice to develop a wider comprehension of the nature and working of law. The class makes use of the Coursera MOOC "A Law Student's Toolkit" (https://www.coursera.org/learn/law-student).

Learning Objectives

• The primary aim of the course is to form a complete understanding of approaches toward research on law within a comparative perspective and ability to resolve typical legal conflicts and to prepare legal documents.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Understand fundamental terminology
• Explain main legal concepts and ideas
• Know the basic research methods in legal analysis
• Know where and how to find legal acts and courts decisions
• Understand the character and ready to use legal reasoning and argument
• Be able to analyze a range of different ways of thinking about the nature of law

Course Contents

• Introduction: Modern legal families
  The concept of legal family and its development. Definitions of legal family (legal system). The criteria of a taxonomy. Types of modern legal families and their characteristics. Continental or Romance-Germanic law family. Anglo-Saxon (Anglo-American) law family. Religious legal family. Mixed legal system.
• Main legal concepts
  Approaches to definition of legal understanding. Natural law (Jusnaturalism) and its characteristics. Etatism and its characteristics. Features of sociological type of legal understanding. Characteristics of psychological type of legal understanding.
• Sources of law
  Definition of sources of law. Kinds of sources of law and their legal force. Domestic and international sources. Federal and regional sources. Constitutions. Statutes. Court Opinions (the role of precedents). Administrative Regulations. The effect of law in time. Immediate effect (enforcement). Retroactive legality. Surviving of the legal act. Rules for legal acts enforcement and official publication. Termination of the action of legal act. The effect of legal act in space. Jurisdiction. The effect of law in personal. Immunities.
• Wrongdoing and legal accountability
  Definition and features of wrongdoing. Types of wrongdoing. Elements of wrongdoing (corpus delicti). Delictual capacity. Sanity. Defendant's characteristic. Object of wrongdoing. External element. Mental element (mens rea). Legal responsibility (definition and forms).
• Law making process
  Parliament agenda formation and measuring. Characteristics of main stages of law making process. Legislative initiative. Preparation. Introduction. Committee Study. Floor Action. Action by the Second Chamber. Conference Committees. Promulgation.

Assessment Elements

• Seminar activity
• Team project proposal
• Team project defence
• Colloquium
  Oral colloquium will include 5 open questions that will focus on materials of the course. Student should answer these questions without preparation. Only full and right answers will be counted.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.25 * Colloquium + 0.25 * Seminar activity + 0.25 * Team project defence + 0.25 * Team project proposal

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Brooks, T. (2014). Law and Legal Theory. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=675680

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• BERINZON, M., & BRIGGS, R. C. (2016). Legal Families Without the Laws: The Fading of Colonial Law in French West Africa. American Journal of Comparative Law, 64(2), 329–370. https://doi.org/10.5131/AJCL.2016.0012
• Brownlee, K. (2004). The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law (Book). Journal of Moral Philosophy, 1(2), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/174046810400100209
• CASANOVA, J. (2017). Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective. OXFORD: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1506315
• Goh, B. C. (2016). Law Without Lawyers, Justice Without Courts : On Traditional Chinese Mediation. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1431920
• Goldsworthy, J. D. (2006). Interpreting Constitutions : A Comparative Study. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2092575
• Li, L. (2017). Building the Rule of Law in China. Cambridge, MA, United States: Elsevier. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1433172
• Raz, J. (2011). From Normativity to Responsibility. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=458490
• The Oxford handbook of empirical legal research / ed. by Peter Cane; Herbert M. Kritzer. (2010). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.330885197