Introductory description

Normative issues - questions of right and wrong, of just and injust, of good and bad - often arise in, indeed often motivate, the study of social, legal and political institutions and policy. How should those institutions be arranged? By what moral criteria should we assess policy options? How should we act as individuals, citizens, politicians or judges? Taught by a team drawn from three Departments - Politics and International Studies, Law, and Philosophy - this interdisciplinary survey course provides an advanced and wide-ranging introduction to the main theoretical perspectives and substantive topics.

The first term offers a comprehensive survey of key approaches to normative theory. We look at consequentialism (should we aim simply to maximize the good?); deontology (are there rights and duties that constrain the pursuit of the good? what is the normative significance of intentions?); and contractualism (is it helpful to think about the social arrangements people would have agreed to?. We also consider the idea that we assess normative claims by a process of reflective equilibrium and the major theoretical approaches to social justice in the work of John Rawls.

The second covers a range of more specific conceptual and substantive issues such as the relation between democracy, justice and legitimacy, and the justification of human rights, of punishment, and of criminalization. We also explore some further methodological issues such as the action-guiding role of ideal theory and the philosophical relevance of studying the history of political thought. Finally, we consider two of the key questions that arise in the study of social and political justice: the relation between gender and justice, and between justice and equality.

This module is compulsory for students taking our MA in Legal and Political Theory. It is also available as an option to students on other MA programmes. It will be of particular interest to those who find themselves wanting to understand the moral aspects of the social, economic, political and legal phenomena they are studying.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Indicative Syllabus:

Introduction

1. Kinds of normative analysis
2. Methodologies of normative analysis

Approaches
3. Impartial consequentialism
4. Contractualism
5. Contractarianism
6. Reading week
7. Non-contractualist deontology

Concepts
8. Harm
9. Aid
10. Rights and human rights

Normative ethics
11. Moral principles and empirical facts
12. The place of intentions
13. Morality and living well

Normative political theory
14. What counts as political?
15. Ideal and non-ideal theories
16. Reading week
17. Constitutionalism, procedure and substance

Normative legal theory
18. Legal and political obligation
19. Legal reasoning
20. Criminalisation

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate enhanced key skills such as written and oral communication skills, problem solving, working with others, and information technology skills.
• Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the methodologies and concepts of, and the main recent approaches to, normative analysis.
• Demonstrate the ability to relate abstract normative concepts and theories to particular debates within moral, political or legal theory.
• Analyse and evaluate at an advanced level opposing normative arguments.
• Devise a viable research essay topic relevant to the module
• Construct and substantiate a comprehensive and sophisticated argument

Indicative reading list

Cohen, G. A., Rescuing Justice and Equality
Darwall, S., Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect and Accountability
Duff, A., Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law
Dworkin, R., Law’s Empire
—— Justice for Hedgehogs
Gauthier, D, Morals by Agreement
Hart, H. L. A., The Concept of Law
Husak, D., Overcriminalisation: The Limits of the Criminal Law
Kagan, S., The Limits of Morality
—— Normative Ethics
Kamm, F. M., Intricate Ethics: Rights, Responsibilities, and Permissible Harm
Parfit, D., Reasons and Persons
—— On What Matters, vol. 1
Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice
—— Political Liberalism
—— Collected Papers
Raz, J., Practical Reason and Norms
—— The Authority of Law
—— The Morality of Freedom
—— From Normativity to Responsibility
—— (ed.) Authority
Scanlon, T. M., What We Owe to Each Other
—— Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame
Simmons, A. J., Justification and Legitimacy: Essays on Rights and Obligations
Thomson, J. J., The Realm of Rights
—— Normativity
Tadros, V., The Ends of Harm
Waldron, J., Law and Disagreement

Subject specific skills

The aims of the module are:

• To introduce some of the central concepts relevant to normative analysis in ethics, politics and law
• To develop students’ understanding of some key methodological issues that arise in normative analysis
• To enable students to understand and evaluate the main recent approaches to normative analysis: consequentialism, deontology, and contractualism.
• To foster students’ understanding of some key normative issues in moral, political and legal theory
• To develop students’ skills in the identification and interpretation of relevant texts in normative inquiry
• To foster the ability to analyse and evaluate opposing normative arguments

Transferable skills

By the end of the modules students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the methodologies and concepts of, and the main recent approaches to, normative analysis
• Demonstrate the ability to relate abstract concepts and theories to particular debates within morality, politics, and the law
• Analyse and evaluate at an advanced level opposing arguments
• Demonstrate enhanced key skills such as written and oral communication skills, problem solving, working with others, and information technology skills.
• Devise a viable research topic
• Construct and substantiate a comprehensive and sophisticated argument