Criminal Law, Tort Law, Property Law, and Contract Law are foundational areas in jurisprudence, and they happen to be the subjects covered during the first year of a typical law school curriculum.  The objective of this course is to examine the philosophical underpinnings of these four areas of “common law,” which will include examining prominent legal cases from each area.  While many of these cases are covered in the law school setting, the focus of this course will be on the philosophical analysis and moral evaluation of the law.  Before getting to the four areas noted above, we’ll begin with a general discussion of liberalism, constitutional law, and the “Hart-Dworkin Debate.”  This is an introductory course with no prerequisites and no philosophy/law background presupposed.