Persons and Bodies (LAW339H1S)

The course will examine the foundational idea of a person as the bearer of rights through discussion of relevant case law as well as scholarly commentary and philosophical and/or literary texts.  Topics to be worked through may include the distinction between property rights and personal rights, ownership and personhood, battery, defamation, invasion of privacy, property in body parts, the distinction between personal integrity and bodily integrity, competence, the relation between competence and mental disorder, and, more generally, the conditions for the possibility of legally actionable psychological harm.  We would aspire throughout to systematize, under the rubric of personality, insights embedded in seemingly diverse juridical terrains such as torts, property, copyright, contract, mental health law, and privacy law.