Postgraduate Course: Law and the Enlightenment (LAWS11119)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines legal theorising in the Scottish Enlightenment. In particular, through a reading of source material students will consider debates over Natural Law (reason, will or moral sense), over justice and utility, and over governement, society and history. Eighteenth-century debates over liberty, property, wealth and virtue will be assessed. |
| Course description |
The writers considered include Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf, Viscount Stair, Frances Hutcheson, Lord Kames, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Andrew Fletcher and John Millar.
By the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate:
(1) a critical knowledge and understanding of the main debates in Enlightenment legal theory;
(2) knowledge of the views of selected thinkers;
(3) the place of Scottish thinkers in the Enlightenment.
This will ensure that the main Learning Outcome will be Knowledge and Understanding, more specifically understanding of some of the main writers on law and justice during the Scottish Enlightenment, the relationship of their work to that of other writers, an understanding of the content of these works, and a grasp of some of the main debates about natural law, justice and history in the eighteenth-century, promoting reflection on thinking about history and law as well as philosophy and law
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Equivalent to Above |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- A critical knowledge and understanding of the main debates in Enlightenment legal theory;
- Critical detailed knowledge of relevant aspects of the views of selected thinkers
- The place of Scottish thinkers in the Enlightenment
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Reading List
| There is no preliminary reading for this course. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will develop skills of analysis and the ability to read critically and closely, to evaluate, to debate and to discuss difficult and unfamiliar material in a group, as well as an ability to write cogently in addressing such material. |
| Special Arrangements |
None |
| Keywords | Justice,Enlightenment,Law,Scotland,Adam Smith,David Hume,Natural Law |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof John Cairns
Tel: (0131 6)50 2065
Email: John.Cairns@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Olivia Hayes
Tel: (0131 6)50 9588
Email: Olivia.Hayes@ed.ac.uk |
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