Legal Foundations of Liberal Democracy

This is mainly a seminar in normative political theory insofar as it intersects with legal philosophy: its aim is to study, discuss and challenge some main contemporary (and occasionally, classical) legal conceptions of fundamental values posited in liberal and political theory. Of course, law is not the only, perhaps not even the most important, instrument for giving effect to liberal-democratic values, but it is certainly an indispensable guarantee of those ideals. Liberty under law, equality, justice and legitimacy: these will be four central themes of the seminar. Taken together, they cohere into an attractive vision of the rule of law.