This module familiarizes students with the classic texts on the Rule of law. The teaching is organized around specific authors, sequentially, with a close reference to exemplary texts. The general approach should be historical, situating each author within the specific context of their time, t he political controversies they were involved in, and responding to, as well as their overall strategy for either political or institutional reform.

This module introduces students to the philosophical analysis of the vocabulary of law and legal institutions. The teaching should be organized around subject and thematic areas, rather than by author, guiding students in the reconstruction of alternative conceptions of the materials and methods of law, legal systems, legal reasoning and interpretation.

This module reviews the most influential philosophical conceptions of law, and their relevance for understanding the requirements of the rule of law. The teaching should begin with a classic text by Italian legal philosopher Norberto Bobbio, providing a general map of alternative philosophical conceptions of legal positivism. Then the module discusses exemplary reconstructions of these alternative philosophical conceptions by presenting excerpts from both classic and contemporary texts engaging with the persistent questions of legal philosophy relating to its subject-matter, its methodology and its normative commitments to law and legality.

This module delves into the procedural dimensions of the rule of law and its violations, by presenting a comparative perspective to due process, fair trials, and the role of judges in contemporary nation-states. The module covers due process requirements and their violations both in the criminal domains as well as in the civil and administrative ones.

This module shall develop students’ abilities to historically situate and contextualize alternative conceptions of the Rule of law, the political controversies that gave rise to their formulation, and the specific proposals for institutional reform which they inspired. The students should be able to trace the historical significance of the central concepts associated to the Rule of Law to their original formulations, their institutional context and political objectives.

This module shall develop students’ abilities in the philosophical analysis of the vocabulary of law and legal institutions. The students should be able to critically discuss the respective value and limitations of alternative conceptions of norms, legal systems, legal reasoning and interpretation.

This module shall develop students’ abilities to critically discuss the most influential philosophical conceptions of law, and their relevance for understanding the requirements of the rule of law. Students shall become familiarized to, and conversant in the persistent questions of legal philosophy relating to its subject-matter, its methodology and its normative commitments to law and legality.

This module shall develop students’ abilities to identify and assess the procedural dimensions of the rule of law and its violations. The students shall become critically aware of, and knowledgeable about comparative perspectives to due process, fair trials, and the role of judges in contemporary nation-states, both in the criminal domains as well as in the civil and administrative ones, both in common law jurisdictions, as well in civil ones.

1. Law, Justice and Coercion: an introduction to Augustine’s philosophy of law
2. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
3. Montesquieu’s Institutional Dynamics: Consolidation of the Principles of Government
4. Montesquieu’s Institutional Dynamics: Corruption of the Principles of Government
5. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
6. Sieyès’s Revolution: The Rights of Man and the Gains of Liberty
7. Sieyès’s Revolution: Constitutional Design
8. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights: Duty, Pity and Contempt
9. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights: Character, Virtue and Reputation
10. Reason, Law and Tradition in Edmund Burke
11. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature
12. The Federalist Papers: Executive Powers, Rights and Judicial Review
13. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Sovereignty, Subjection and Political Independence
14. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Rights, Constitutions and Popular Consent

• Pablo Navarro on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Brian Bix on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Matthias Klatt on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Michelangelo Bovero on the concept of the Rule of Law

1. I. What is a Norm?
   • The Varieties of Norms. A Conceptual Map
   • Law and Coercion
   • Norms and the Objective Meaning of Facts
   • Generalization and Entrenchment in Rule-Based Decision Making (video Rodriguez, video Moniz)
   • Norms as Reasons for Action
   • Rules and Principles
2. II. Legal Positions and Rights
   • On The Logical Structure of Rights
   • What Is the Point of Rights-language?
   • Theories of Rights (video Moreso I)
3. III. From Norms to Legal Systems and Back
   • On The Analytical Priority of Legal Systems
   • On The Dynamics of Law
   • On the Rule of Recognition
   • On Coherent Legal Systems
4. IV. Interpretation, Judicial Reasoning and Legal Science
   • Interpretation and the Canons of Construction
   • Interpretation and Cognition
   • Arguing Fundamental Rights
   • Coherentist Conceptions of Legal Argumentation
   • Is Legal Science a Source of Law?

• José Juan Moreso on the specification of rights
• Pedro Moniz on over and under inclusivity
• David Duarte on Hohfeld
• Jorge Rodriguez on Fred Schauer
• Marco Brigaglia on Psycho-deontic
• Corrado Roversi on experimental philosophy
• Eric Millard on Carré de Malberg
• Alejandro Calzetta on Giovanni Tarello
• Alejandro Calzetto on normative powers
• Damiano Canale on the central problems of the philosophy of law
• Julieta Rabanos on Karl Olivecrona

1. I. Varieties of Legal Positivism
   • Legal Positivism: Ideological, Theoretical or Methodological
   • Ideological Legal Positivism
   • Legal Positivism as a Theory of Law
   • Legal Positivism and Political Theory (video Sandro II, Moreso II)
   • Inclusive Legal Positivism
   • Methodological Legal Positivism (video Brigaglia II, video Roversi, video Rabanos, video Calzetta)
2. II. Natural Law and Natural Rights
   • Aquinas’ Natural Law
   • What Is a Natural Right?
   • What Are the Legitimate Ends (and Limits) of Government?
   • Natural Law, Political Communities and Human Flourishing
   • Essential Human Functionings and Social Justice
3. III. Critical Legal Studies and the Rule of Law
   • Is The Rule of Law Illegal?
   • On The Phenomenology of Judging
   • Does The Rule of Law Protect Minorities?
   • Law, Gender and Justice
4. IV. Beyond Positivism
   • Intorable Injustice and Fidelity to Law: Radbruch’s Formula
   • Duties, Aspirations and the Inner Morality of Law
   • Beyond Positivism: Dworkin’s Model of Rules
   • Beyond Positivism: Atienza and Ruiz Manero’s Way Out
   • Beyond Positivism: Alexy’s Way out

• Mauricio Maldonado on Bobbio and positivism
• José Juan Moreso on Scott Hershowitz
• Giuseppe Rocché on authority and theories of obedience
• Paolo Sandro on making and applying the law
• Matija Zgur on the Rule of Law and public administration

1. I. Judicial Application of Law and the Problems of Fact-Finding
   • Fidelity to Law and Judicial Duties
   • Judicial Application of Law: A Conceptual Map
   • On the Rational Application of Law
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship
2. II. Political Ideology and the Organization of State Powers
   • Comparative Procedural Law and Institutional Evolution: Culture, Economics or Politics?
3. III. Due Process and Judicial Policy
   • The Procedural Dimensions of the Rule of Law
   • Law and Reason in Criminal Procedure
   • The Point of Civil Justice

1. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
2. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
3. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights
4. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature
5. The Federalist Papers: Executive Powers, Rights and Judicial Review
6. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Rights, Constitutions and Popular Consent

1. I. What is a Norm?
   • The Varieties of Norms. A Conceptual Map
   • Law and Coercion
   • Norms and the Objective Meaning of Facts
   • Norms as Reasons for Action
   • Rules and Principles
2. II. Legal Positions and Rights
   • On The Logical Structure of Rights
   • Theories of Rights
3. III. From Norms to Legal Systems and Back
   • On The Analytical Priority of Legal Systems
   • On The Dynamics of Law
   • On the Rule of Recognition
   • On Coherent Legal Systems
4. IV. Interpretation, Judicial Reasoning and Legal Science
   • Interpretation and the Canons of Construction
   • Interpretation and Cognition
   • Arguing Fundamental Rights
   • Is Legal Science a Source of Law?

1. I. Varieties of Legal Positivism
   • Legal Positivism: Ideological, Theoretical or Methodological
   • Ideological Legal Positivism
   • Legal Positivism as a Theory of Law
   • Methodological Legal Positivism
2. II. Natural Law and Natural Rights
   • Aquinas’ Natural Law
   • What Is a Natural Right?
   • Natural Law, Political Communities and Human Flourishing
3. III. Critical Legal Studies and the Rule of Law
   • Is The Rule of Law Illegal?
   • On The Phenomenology of Judging
4. IV. Beyond Positivism
   • Intorable Injustice and Fidelity to Law: Radbruch’s Formula
   • Duties, Aspirations and the Inner Morality of Law
   • Beyond Positivism

1. I. Judicial Application of Law and the Problems of Fact-Finding
   • Fidelity to Law and Judicial Duties
   • Judicial Application of Law: A Conceptual Map
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship
2. II. Political Ideology and the Organization of State Powers
   • Comparative Procedural Law and Institutional Evolution: Culture, Economics or Politics?
3. III. Due Process and Judicial Policy
   • The Point of Civil Justice
   • The Procedural Dimensions of the Rule of Law
   • Law and Reason in Criminal Procedure

1. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
2. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
3. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature
4. The Federalist Papers: Executive Powers, Rights and Judicial Review

1. I. What is a Norm?
   • The Varieties of Norms. A Conceptual Map
   • Law and Coercion
   • Norms as Reasons for Action
2. II. Legal Positions and Rights
   • On The Logical Structure of Rights
   • Theories of Rights
3. III. From Norms to Legal Systems and Back
   • On The Analytical Priority of Legal Systems
   • On The Dynamics of Law
   • On the Rule of Recognition
4. IV. Interpretation, Judicial Reasoning and Legal Science
   • Interpretation and Cognition
   • Arguing Fundamental Rights

1. I. Varieties of Legal Positivism
   • Ideological Legal Positivism
   • Legal Positivism as a Theory of Law
   • Methodological Legal Positivism
2. II. Natural Law and Natural Rights
   • What Is a Natural Right?
   • Natural Law, Political Communities and Human Flourishing
3. III. Beyond Positivism
   • Intorable Injustice and Fidelity to Law: Radbruch’s Formula
   • Beyond Positivism