Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: No Exam. There will be no paper or exam, and class will be graded credit/fail.

Legal skepticism is disbelief in law’s coherence and law’s rational constraint. We will look at skeptical writings in legal theory, mainly from the American schools of legal realism and critical legal studies. The skeptical picture of law shows law to be riven by incoherence and conflict and controlled by political choice. Our question throughout: is this picture correct? And if it is correct, what should we do about it? How can law go forward?

Note: This reading group will meet on the following dates: 9/5, 9/19, 10/3, 10/17, 10/31, 11/14