perspectives on law
week 1
The play is meant to kick-start our reflection about perspectives, ideas, reasonable
disagreement and justice.
Sophaglese (antigone) - play ends in an era of death. The play start witht the end of a civil
war. This play must be relevant for our times.
What is it about antigone that makes it relevant today?
The play can be read as a study on the validity or legitimacy of law.
“Creon” views law as rules laid down by the ruler. enthorned law (positive law perspective)
“Antigone” appeals to a higher law, the holiest laws of heaven. the law of men must bow
down to the obligations that we have to the Gods.
“Ismene” and “Haemon”
think about the attitudes of the characters.
reflect on the question of gender.
Think about the distinvtion between a law that is manifestly unjust and what that means. and
a situation where a law may not be manifestly unjust in design, but is unjust is application.
1905 case Lochner v. New York.
concerns the question of whether a state possess the authority to regulate hours of work. In
particular whether the bake-shop act contravenes the 14th amendment of the United States
constitution.
Justice Holmes states, that the US constitution “is made for people with fundamentally
differing views”
what might this case have to do with our view on antigone, or with the economic
globalisation of our era.
If antigone shows us that opinions about what is right and what is just can differ wildly in a
society, even in one family. What can we accept on the global level.
Antigone by Sophocles:
Antigone want help from her sister Ismene to bury their brother, Plyneices. Ismene repeats
Creon’s decree that everyone who attempt to bury Polyneices will be stoned. Creon is the
New king so his threats are real.
Ismene reminds Antigone that they have already lost so much of their family due to the curse
of Oedipus. Ismene does not want to lose Antigone as well.
Antigone is determined to burt their brother. When ismene realizes she cannot change
Antigone’s mind, she at least asks Antigone to keep her plans secret.
next scene.
The chorus is praying out loud to the god, Apollo. They are giving thanks for their recent
victory. Yet the victory came with a steep price. The city of 7 gates, Thebes, lost 7 of their
generals which they had sent out to defeat the 7 enemy generals.
The brothers Oolyneices and eteoles stood for the different sides of the war, both died. As
seen above king Creon emphasises that the traitor, Polyneices is to be left to the voltures
,A Guard tells Creon that a burial has taken place,without knowing who has done it. Creon
accuses the guard of taking a bribe and allowing someone to bury Polyneices. The guard
quickly returns stating that he arrested Antigone while she was burrying Polyneices.
Antigone states that she would rather die than have left Polyneices unburies, saying that
Creon’s decree was immoral. Creon says that even someone as stubborn as Antigone will
be made to follow the law, even if it takes violence.
Heamon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiance at first agrees to defer to Creon’s decision. Yet
haemon does make a case for Antigone, he states that there is a growing sentiment
amongst the population that Antigone does not deserve to die. Her convictions to bury her
brother were noble.
The Chorus advises Creon to heed Haemon’s warning. Creon reasons that Haemon is a fool
to defend a traitor. Haemon asks what Antigone’s punishment would be. Creon states that
she would be sealed in a cave and starved to death.
Teiresias the seer comes in a tries to talk some sense into Creon. Teiresias claims that
Creon is making a terrible mistake.
His biggest mistake is that he was not capable to admit his wrongfulness in not allowing a
burial for Polyneices. The Chorus advised Creon to take Teiresias seriously. The seer has
never been wrong before. He agrees.
A royal messenger comes in and delivers the news that both Antigone and Haemon are
dead (Haemon took his own life).
Queen Eurydice (Creon’s wife) after hearing the news also kills herself. Creon admits that he
is resonsible for the death of his son and wife.
lecture 1 notes:
● 3 assignments must hand in all. 1 is graded.
● small group contract
○ Individual assignment 1 (29 Sept)
○ Individual assignment 2 (3 Nov)
○ Individual assignment 3 (17 Nov)
course hypothesis:
(Global) society is not a single story. But law pushes us towards telling just one story.
● The law standardizes/normalizes human behaviour.
● The law creates identities
○ women with too much testosterone are in some countries for the law not
considered as a wom
class 1 questions:
● What is the function or role of law, and what work does the law do?
● What is at stake here?
● Is there a right or even an obligation to disobey the law?
what does the play tels you about the notion of reasonableness?
reasonableness is flexible.
how does law work in the law? what is the outcome of that work or functioning?
● Law is the authoritative decision maker.
● law makes a decision. It says in face of the issue that a decision needs to be made.
, ● structures the conflict, does not resolve them.
Do we have a duty to obey the law and to disobey the law?
What is at stake in the Lochner case?
How does this case help us think about the globalisation that we see?
Week 2: legal knowledge & law’s persuasion
In this class, we look first at how law seeks to impose its authority through the construction
of the specific type of knowledge that is legal knowledge. As Lawrence Rosen notes, “Legal
systems create facts in order to treat them as facts.” i.e. there is a difference between a fact
out there in the real world and a fact that is acknowledged as such by the legal system. So
how does law go about rendering the complexity or messiness of life into forms or processes
that can be reduced to binary decision-making (guilty/ not guilty; liable/ not liable)? And what
does that rendering do to those who are subject to the law's definitional power?
We will also address questions such as whether we can ever really know the facts: are legal
facts, for example culturally determined? Are facts generationally-determined? These
questions go to the meaning that will be attributed to human behaviour and action within the
legal system, such as criminal intent. But it also speaks to the intended meaning attributed to
forms of communication, including online communication, such as the use of emojis. Do we
ever really know what someone means when communicating and what does law do with
such indeterminancy?
In the second part of the class, we examine how law seeks to persuade those subject to it of
its authority (a subject that we return to repeatedly throughout the course). Arguably, law's
persuasiveness rests on it’s rhetorical and ceremonial characteristics. What does the
rhetorical point of view entail and how does it function? How does rhetoric function to make
the law persuasive? Law and legal institutions also contain particular ceremonial elements
which underpin law’s persuasiveness. In this class, we will also discuss how the procedures,
roles and public (or communal) elements of legal ceremony contribute to its effective
authority.
Podcast:
Laws have persuasive power, and we are asking ourselves how they establish their
authority. The simple answer is the traditional positivist answer: Law is persuasive because it
is enforced by the sovereign’s monopoly on power. However, this cannot answer the
question of why law outside national state boundaries is persuasive.
Essay by James Boyd White:
He asks us to view law as a rhetorical practice or, put differently, as a practice of
argumentation. Boyd White makes the claim that law is deeply embedded in community and
gains its persuasiveness from its ability to speak to that community.
The second text is a 2010 decision from the Seventh Circuit of the Federal Appeals Court.
Flomo and Others v. Firestone. Instead of focusing on the promises and possibilities of
global human rights, we will treat the judgement as a literary text to study its persuasiveness.
Judgement written by Justice Psoner. Why his judgement is so persuasive?
Main plaintiff in this case are children who performed various types of labour on Firestone’s
rubber plantations in Liberia.
week 1
The play is meant to kick-start our reflection about perspectives, ideas, reasonable
disagreement and justice.
Sophaglese (antigone) - play ends in an era of death. The play start witht the end of a civil
war. This play must be relevant for our times.
What is it about antigone that makes it relevant today?
The play can be read as a study on the validity or legitimacy of law.
“Creon” views law as rules laid down by the ruler. enthorned law (positive law perspective)
“Antigone” appeals to a higher law, the holiest laws of heaven. the law of men must bow
down to the obligations that we have to the Gods.
“Ismene” and “Haemon”
think about the attitudes of the characters.
reflect on the question of gender.
Think about the distinvtion between a law that is manifestly unjust and what that means. and
a situation where a law may not be manifestly unjust in design, but is unjust is application.
1905 case Lochner v. New York.
concerns the question of whether a state possess the authority to regulate hours of work. In
particular whether the bake-shop act contravenes the 14th amendment of the United States
constitution.
Justice Holmes states, that the US constitution “is made for people with fundamentally
differing views”
what might this case have to do with our view on antigone, or with the economic
globalisation of our era.
If antigone shows us that opinions about what is right and what is just can differ wildly in a
society, even in one family. What can we accept on the global level.
Antigone by Sophocles:
Antigone want help from her sister Ismene to bury their brother, Plyneices. Ismene repeats
Creon’s decree that everyone who attempt to bury Polyneices will be stoned. Creon is the
New king so his threats are real.
Ismene reminds Antigone that they have already lost so much of their family due to the curse
of Oedipus. Ismene does not want to lose Antigone as well.
Antigone is determined to burt their brother. When ismene realizes she cannot change
Antigone’s mind, she at least asks Antigone to keep her plans secret.
next scene.
The chorus is praying out loud to the god, Apollo. They are giving thanks for their recent
victory. Yet the victory came with a steep price. The city of 7 gates, Thebes, lost 7 of their
generals which they had sent out to defeat the 7 enemy generals.
The brothers Oolyneices and eteoles stood for the different sides of the war, both died. As
seen above king Creon emphasises that the traitor, Polyneices is to be left to the voltures
,A Guard tells Creon that a burial has taken place,without knowing who has done it. Creon
accuses the guard of taking a bribe and allowing someone to bury Polyneices. The guard
quickly returns stating that he arrested Antigone while she was burrying Polyneices.
Antigone states that she would rather die than have left Polyneices unburies, saying that
Creon’s decree was immoral. Creon says that even someone as stubborn as Antigone will
be made to follow the law, even if it takes violence.
Heamon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiance at first agrees to defer to Creon’s decision. Yet
haemon does make a case for Antigone, he states that there is a growing sentiment
amongst the population that Antigone does not deserve to die. Her convictions to bury her
brother were noble.
The Chorus advises Creon to heed Haemon’s warning. Creon reasons that Haemon is a fool
to defend a traitor. Haemon asks what Antigone’s punishment would be. Creon states that
she would be sealed in a cave and starved to death.
Teiresias the seer comes in a tries to talk some sense into Creon. Teiresias claims that
Creon is making a terrible mistake.
His biggest mistake is that he was not capable to admit his wrongfulness in not allowing a
burial for Polyneices. The Chorus advised Creon to take Teiresias seriously. The seer has
never been wrong before. He agrees.
A royal messenger comes in and delivers the news that both Antigone and Haemon are
dead (Haemon took his own life).
Queen Eurydice (Creon’s wife) after hearing the news also kills herself. Creon admits that he
is resonsible for the death of his son and wife.
lecture 1 notes:
● 3 assignments must hand in all. 1 is graded.
● small group contract
○ Individual assignment 1 (29 Sept)
○ Individual assignment 2 (3 Nov)
○ Individual assignment 3 (17 Nov)
course hypothesis:
(Global) society is not a single story. But law pushes us towards telling just one story.
● The law standardizes/normalizes human behaviour.
● The law creates identities
○ women with too much testosterone are in some countries for the law not
considered as a wom
class 1 questions:
● What is the function or role of law, and what work does the law do?
● What is at stake here?
● Is there a right or even an obligation to disobey the law?
what does the play tels you about the notion of reasonableness?
reasonableness is flexible.
how does law work in the law? what is the outcome of that work or functioning?
● Law is the authoritative decision maker.
● law makes a decision. It says in face of the issue that a decision needs to be made.
, ● structures the conflict, does not resolve them.
Do we have a duty to obey the law and to disobey the law?
What is at stake in the Lochner case?
How does this case help us think about the globalisation that we see?
Week 2: legal knowledge & law’s persuasion
In this class, we look first at how law seeks to impose its authority through the construction
of the specific type of knowledge that is legal knowledge. As Lawrence Rosen notes, “Legal
systems create facts in order to treat them as facts.” i.e. there is a difference between a fact
out there in the real world and a fact that is acknowledged as such by the legal system. So
how does law go about rendering the complexity or messiness of life into forms or processes
that can be reduced to binary decision-making (guilty/ not guilty; liable/ not liable)? And what
does that rendering do to those who are subject to the law's definitional power?
We will also address questions such as whether we can ever really know the facts: are legal
facts, for example culturally determined? Are facts generationally-determined? These
questions go to the meaning that will be attributed to human behaviour and action within the
legal system, such as criminal intent. But it also speaks to the intended meaning attributed to
forms of communication, including online communication, such as the use of emojis. Do we
ever really know what someone means when communicating and what does law do with
such indeterminancy?
In the second part of the class, we examine how law seeks to persuade those subject to it of
its authority (a subject that we return to repeatedly throughout the course). Arguably, law's
persuasiveness rests on it’s rhetorical and ceremonial characteristics. What does the
rhetorical point of view entail and how does it function? How does rhetoric function to make
the law persuasive? Law and legal institutions also contain particular ceremonial elements
which underpin law’s persuasiveness. In this class, we will also discuss how the procedures,
roles and public (or communal) elements of legal ceremony contribute to its effective
authority.
Podcast:
Laws have persuasive power, and we are asking ourselves how they establish their
authority. The simple answer is the traditional positivist answer: Law is persuasive because it
is enforced by the sovereign’s monopoly on power. However, this cannot answer the
question of why law outside national state boundaries is persuasive.
Essay by James Boyd White:
He asks us to view law as a rhetorical practice or, put differently, as a practice of
argumentation. Boyd White makes the claim that law is deeply embedded in community and
gains its persuasiveness from its ability to speak to that community.
The second text is a 2010 decision from the Seventh Circuit of the Federal Appeals Court.
Flomo and Others v. Firestone. Instead of focusing on the promises and possibilities of
global human rights, we will treat the judgement as a literary text to study its persuasiveness.
Judgement written by Justice Psoner. Why his judgement is so persuasive?
Main plaintiff in this case are children who performed various types of labour on Firestone’s
rubber plantations in Liberia.
