Session 1 - Part 1, Chapter 1 – What Is Law?

Question 1

Corrective Justice

Answer 1

A theory of justice focused on rectifying harm through compensation, emphasizing individual responsibility.

Question 2

Critical Legal Studies

Answer 2

An approach questioning law’s objectivity, highlighting its role in maintaining power structures.

Question 3

Critical Race Theory

Answer 3

Examines how law perpetuates racial inequality and advocates for racial justice.

Question 4

Deontological

Answer 4

An ethical framework emphasizing the inherent rightness or wrongness of actions, regardless of consequences.

Question 5

Distributive Justice

Answer 5

Concerned with fair allocation of resources and benefits in society.

Question 6

Instrumentalist

Answer 6

Views something like justice or the law as a means to achieve a desired end.

Question 7

Legal Positivism

Answer 7

Defines law as human-made rules created through recognized processes, separate from morality.

Question 8

Legal Realism

Answer 8

Emphasizes empirical study of lawmaking and application, acknowledging human influences.

Question 9

Marxist Theories of Law

Answer 9

Analyze law through a socioeconomic lens, critiquing its role in capitalist systems.

Question 10

Natural Law

Answer 10

A higher law based on reason, morality, or divine will, believed to supersede human-made laws.

Question 11

Positive Law

Answer 11

Human-made laws enacted by recognized authorities.

Question 12

Practice Norms

Answer 12

Ethical standards and legal skills expected of legal practitioners.

Question 13

Procedural Law

Answer 13

Rules governing the process of enforcing rights and obligations.

Question 14

Public Law

Answer 14

Law concerning the relationship between the state and individuals, including constitutional and criminal law.

Question 15

Retributive Justice

Answer 15

Focuses on punishment as a response to wrongdoing.

Question 16

Rule of Law

Answer 16

A principle emphasizing fair and consistent application of law, limiting arbitrary power.

Question 17

Substantive Law

Answer 17

Law defining rights, duties, and obligations.

Question 18

What are the three main types of rules that make up a legal system?

Answer 18

General norms/standards: Prohibit activities like theft or speeding. Condition rules: Establish requirements, like needing a license to drive. Power-conferring rules: Allow individuals to define legal relationships, like in contracts.

Question 19

difference between a descriptive and a normative perspective of morality.

Answer 19

Descriptive morality: Observing what a community considers right or wrong without judgment. Normative morality: Accepting a moral code as objectively true and a guide for behavior.

Question 20

Explain the concept of corrective justice

Answer 20

Corrective justice: The belief that individuals are morally responsible for harm they cause and must rectify it, typically through compensation. Example: A person who damages another’s property must pay for repairs.

Question 21

What is the law of retaliation (lex talionis), and how does it relate to the concept of retributive justice?

Answer 21

Lex talionis: “An eye for an eye” principle, advocating proportional response to wrongdoing. It underpins retributive justice, which focuses on punishment as a response to crime.

Question 22

Briefly explain John Rawls’s general conception of justice.

Answer 22

Rawls’s conception: Social goods like liberty, opportunity, and wealth should be distributed equally unless inequality benefits everyone.

Question 22

What are three key principles of the rule of law as described by AV Dicey?

Answer 22

Dicey’s rule of law: Law trumps arbitrary power, everyone is equal under the law, and courts protect rights/liberties by providing remedies.