An introduction to some of the main issues generated by the philosophical question, "What is law?" In what sense is conduct made obligatory by the existence of law? What, if any, is the relationship between law and morals? What are rules? What does it mean to say that a rule exists? Do courts really apply rules or merely pretend to do so?
4
UnitsOptional
Grading1
PasstimeNone
Level LimitLetters and science
CollegeFinal was an oral exam asking one question, obviously an extremely poor way of testing genuine understanding. Every class discussion is people parroting stuff from the reading while citing directly from the text. If you have above average reading comprehension you will be very bored. Good class to fall asleep in and listen to others voices.
Class is discussion-based, and active participation in the class is required in order to succeed. There is a lot of really difficult dense reading which made it stressful at times, but I have never learned more in a class than this one. Prof Greene is very passionate about her teaching which made this class very insightful and engaging.
Professor Greene is my favorite at UCSB. Her classes are difficult but informative. She is very logical and explains things well. You have to be committed to the topic to do well in the class, and you have to attend every lecture. She has a no device policy so you have to engage. Highly recommend if you are interested in political theory or law.
The material is insane for one quarter, and his application-based exams did not make it any better. He was humbled with our 33% average on M1, and made M2 a bit less challenging, but still hard. He gave resources, which helped, but you do need to read. He speaks very monotone and fast at the same time, making it difficult to stay engaged in class.
Be prepared to study a lot in the class and the textbook is your holy grail. His tests are extremely difficult with the first midterm having an average of 33%. He is a nice guy but needs to lighten up the difficulty of the questions on the exams. No matter how much you study, there will still be questions you cannot answer at all in 50mins.
Professor Greene has insightful lectures and there are ample opportunities to earn credit besides the exams. The weekly quizzes are a great way to consolidate the dense content in the lectures and I found the exams more than reasonable for the breadth and complexity of content in 142b.