Kant's Philosophy of Law (LAW213H1F)

Our legal discourse is the discourse of rights, and Immanuel Kant is perhaps the greatest modern expositor of what it is to have a system of rights. For Kant, the possibility that law can be systematically rightful encompasses private law, public law, and international law, It also gives law its normative character as a condition of freedom under which public compulsion is justified. .

This course will examine the notions of right and legality that Kant sets out in his short but dense work The Doctrine of Right. We will discuss Kant’s conception of property, contract, the family, the judiciary, the organization of the state, the relation between the state and its citizens, and relations among states. Throughout the course, participants in the class will be invited to consider the extent to which Kant’s account of law is helpful in understanding contemporary legal issues.