PHIL 431 LAW, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS
VKC 210, WF, 10:00 – 11:15
Instructor: Gary Watson
Office hours: W, 1-2:30/F, 11:30-1
(and by appointment)
SYLLABUS
Course Description: This course will focus on three main topics, each related to criminal law:
(I)Theories of criminalization. Why should we have a distinct legal practice of criminal law?
What is the defining difference between between criminal law and other parts of law (say) civil
law? What does it mean to make certain conduct a crime? What should be criminalized and why?
(II) Theories of Legal Punishment and its Alternatives. What is legal punishment and is it
justified? How does it differ from other modes of social control and why should it be preferred
to these alternatives?
(III) Criminalizing Speech.
Requirements: Regular attendance and participation and three 5-6 pp. papers, one on each of the
three sections of the course.1 Occasional very short written exercises will be assigned.
Required Texts:
Overcriminalization, Douglas Husak.
The Problem of Punishment, David Boonin
Selected essays and court cases available on-line.
Schedule of Readings
I The Point and Meaning of Criminalization
Week 1
08/24 Introduction and Orientation
[We will begin our discussion of Husak’s book in Week 2 with Chapter 2. Meanwhile read Ch 1
for background to that discussion.]
08/26 Duff, “Theories of Criminal Law”, sections 1-6, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ,
online : URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/criminal-law/> (or on
Blackboard, click on assignments)
1
The instructor reserves the right to adjust, with due notice, the form of the written assignments as pedagogy
demands—for example, if it seems more useful to substitute an in-class exam for one of the 5-6 page papers.
Week 2
08/31 Husak Ch. 2, 55-92
09/2 Husak Ch. 2, 92-103
Week 3
09/07 Duff, “Crime, Prohibition, and Punishment,” Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 19, No. 2,
2002 (available on Blackboard)
09/09 Husak Ch. 2, 103-119
Week 4
09/14 Husak, Ch. 3, 120-158
09/16 Husak Ch. 3, 159-177
Week 5
09/21 Lawrence v. Texas (Blackboard)
09/23 James Q. Wilson, “Against the Legalization of Drugs” Commentary, 1990 (available on
Blackboard)
II The Grounds and Limits of Legal Punishment
Week 6
09/28 Boonin Ch 1
09/30 Boonin Ch 2; legal cases TBA
[First essay due]
Week 7
10/05 Boonin Ch. 3, sections 3.0 -3.2 [you may skip sub-sections 3.2.2, 3.2.3])
10/07 Boonin Ch. 3, sections 3.3
Week 8
10/12 Boonin, Ch. 4 (sections 4.0, 4.1, and 4.3)
10/14 Boonin, Ch. 4, section 4.2; R.A. Duff, Answering for Crime” (on Blackboard). , or R. A. Duff,
‘Crime, Prohibition and Punishment’, Journal of Applied
Philosophy 19 (2002)
Week 9
10/19 Warren Quinn, “The Right to Threaten and the Right to Punish”. Philosophy and Public
Affairs, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 327-373 (available on Blackboard).
10/21 Boonin, Ch. 4, section 4.4
Week 10
10/26 Sayre-McCord, “Criminal Justice and Reparations as an alternative to Punishment”, (on
Blackboard.)
10/28 Boonin, Ch. 5
III Criminalizing Speech
Week 11
Nov 2 Legal cases (TBA).
Nov 4 No class
Week 12
Nov 9 “There is No SuchThing as Free Speech and It’s a Good Thing Too”, Stanley Fish
[Second essay due]
Nov 11 “Freedom of Expression”, Joshua Cohen
Week 13
Nov. 16 Cohen, continued.
Nov. 18 Obscenity, Pornography, and Censorship (readings TBA)
Week 14
Nov. 23 Pornography as Expression or subordination?
Nov. 25 Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 15
Nov. 30 Hate speech (readings TBA)
Dec. 2 Final discussion