Philosophy of Law (352I) -- Section 002 – CSU Long Beach -- Fall 2009 (#10565)

7:00 - 9:45 p.m. -- Mondays (LA4-108) - Julie Van Camp, Professor of Philosophy

OFFICE:	McIntosh Humanities Building (MHB)-703

TELEPHONE:	Office/Voice Mail: NONE - please use e-mail

E-MAIL:	jvancamp@csulb.edu

OFFICE HOURS:	Mondays: 4:00-6:00 p.m. and before/after Monday class in our classroom

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Interdisciplinary (IC) General Education: The University requirements for IC courses include "substan
tial writing" (at least 5000 words) throughout the semester, with the first writing assignment due no later than the fifth week of the semester. The course requirements and syllabus are designed to meet these University requirements.

The semester grade will be based on two open-book essay examinations (mid-term and final); one short essay paper due in the fifth week; attendance at classes on Mondays; and weekly Activity Point options, for a total of up to 100 points. All exams and quizzes are "open-book-open-notes." The course grade will be based on the total number of points (as shown in the chart, p. 2, below). No late papers, exams, or weekly assignments will be accepted, unless you meet the requirements for make-up exams (below).

Beachboard use is required for this course. Students who do not yet have a csulb.edu e-mail address should get one immediately. We will use the e-mail list-serv, announcements, dropbox, on-line gradebook, threaded discussion board, and on-line quizes. In addition, PowerPoint slides, supplementary readings, and other materials will be posted on Beachboard. You should plan to check your csulb.edu e-mail and the Beachboard announcements page at least once a week throughout the semester.

Letter Grades will be assigned for exams as follows:

For the short paper and mid-term, up to 12 points are available for each, as follows:

Grade	Points	Grade	Points

A+	12	C+	6

A	11	C	5

A-	10	C-	4

B+	9	D+	3

B	8	D	2

B-	7	D-	1

For the final exam, up to 24 points are available, as follows:

Grade	Points	Grade	Points

A+	24-23	C+	12-11

A	22-21	C	10-9

A-	20-19	C-	8-7

B+	18-17	D+	6-5

B	16-15	D	4-3

B-	14-13	D-	2-1

Exam formats: The mid-term and final exams may be written in a bluebook or may be written on a laptop brought to the classroom with the disk turned in as the exam or submitted electronically to the Beachboard Dropbox. The short paper, take-home exam, and final must be written in a word-processing file in either Word, Wordperfect, or RTF and submitted to the Beachboard dropbox. (NOTE: I cannot open files in Microsoft "Works" or AppleWorks. Please "save-as" in RTF-rich-text-format.) The Turn-it-in originality checker will be used for the take-home exams by the instructor and for some mid-term and final exams. No late papers will be accepted, unless you meet the requirements for make-up exams (below).

Attendance: Up to 8 points are available for attendance. One point will be available at each in- person class beginning on September 21, except for exams. Excused absences will be recognized only as mandated by University attendance policies (e.g., serious illness with a physician's note, death in the immediate family, University-sponsored athletic trip), and appropriate documentation (such as a physi
cian's note) will be required.

Attendance will be taken in a variety of ways. Sometimes a class list will be sent around for signature during class. Other times, students will be asked a simple question about the class material and submit an answer with their signature during class. (Please always have a blank piece of paper or file card with you at class.) Although it is understandable that students are sometimes a few minutes late or have a good reason for needing to leave a few minutes early, please do not expect attendance credit for a brief appearance in the classroom just to sign the attendance list. The instructor reserves the right to do spot checks late in the class if excessive numbers of students are leaving early during class.

For the semester grade, up to 100 points are available. Your final course grade will be based solely on the total number of points accumulated during the semester. Nothing is averaged or curved. No traditional percentages are used. The cut-offs will not be changed under any circumstances.

Grade	Points

A	86-100

B	66-85

C	46-65

D	30-45

Course Grade Cut-offs: The cut-offs are derived from the work of hypothetical students at each level of accomplishment. You may accumulate the point totals in any configuration. This merely illustrates where the cut-offs came from.

maximum
possible	A	B	C	D
short paper	12	10	7	4	2
midterm	12	10	7	4	2
final exam	24	19	13	7	2
attendance	8	8	7	6	5
activity points
introduction	2	2	2	2	2
discusssion	2	2	2	2
plagiarism quiz	4	4	4	3	3
Quiz 1	4	4	3	2	2
Quiz 2	4	4	3	2	2
Quiz 3	4	4	3	2	2
Quiz 4	4	3	2	2	1
Quiz 5	8	6	5	4	3
Quiz 6	4	3	2	2	0
Brief 1	4	3	2	2	2
Brief 2	4	4	4	2	2
TOTAL	100	86	66	46	30

Make-up exams will be permitted only for serious illness and other University-mandated excuses. Appropriate documentation, including a physicians' note for illness, will be required in all cases. If you will need to take a make-up exam, you must send an e-mail to jvancamp@csulb.edu no later than 6 pm on the day of the exam. Your message must include a number and e-mail address where I can reach you later that day and the next day to schedule the make-up.

Credit/No Credit students must take at least two of the exams (mid-term, take-home, final) and must accumulate sufficient points for a "C" for the course total.

Cheating and Plagiarism: The CSULB policy on Cheating and Plagiarism will be followed strictly. Students who have any questions or uncertainty whatsoever about this policy are responsible for meeting individually with the instructor to discuss the policy. Students who cheat or plagiarize on any course requirements will be failed for the course and may be reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs for possible probation, suspension, or expulsion. The Turn-in-it Originality checker will be used for written work in this course. The instructor also reserves the right to have an oral discussion with any student individually on any course element for any reason. Please remember: as easy as it is for you to find papers on the World Wide Web which you steal and submit as your own work, it is just as easy for me to find the source of a stolen paper; once I find the paper you stole, you are guaranteed an "F" for the course.

Weekly Activity Point assignments: You are not required to complete these Weekly assignments. However, these are the best way to accumulate points toward your course grade and give yourself a cushion heading into the final exam. Please note that all Activity Point options must be completed no later than the deadline on your syllabus. In most cases, this is 5 am on the day of class, Monday. No exten
sions can be made, due to the close proximity to our classtime on Monday. Please plan ahead in case you have difficulty connecting to the Internet. The pace of the weekly assignments is relentless. You will need to plan your schedule carefully each week to complete the assignment. Late assignments will be accepted only if you meet a mandated University attendance exception for the entire time period during which the assignment can be completed. For example, if you are ill, you will need to bring me a physician's note that you were incapacitated and unable to do the assignment in the week before the deadline.

TOTAL WEEKLY COMMITMENT OF TIME TO THIS COURSE: Ordinarily, in a college-level course, for each one hour of class, students should spend two hours of time in preparation. For this 3-unit course, students should expect to spend, on average, each week, three hours in the in-person class, and six hours in reading, studying, writing, and virtual classroom participation, for a total of about nine hours each week.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

A.	Identify and explain the major questions answered by a theory or philosophy of law.

B.	Identify and explain major examples of philosophy of law, especially natural law, legal positivism, legal realism, and pragmatism

C.	Develop close reading and analytical skills of both philosophical and legal texts

D.	Identify and explain philosophical assumptions and reasoning in legal texts

E.	Recognize and explain issues which have received close scrutiny in both philosophy and law and how those methodologies benefit from mutual insights (e.g., causation and responsibility)

F.	Identify and explain issues in the law which have benefitted from philosophical analysis (e.g., free speech)

State budget campus shut-downs and mandatory furloughs

State budget campus shut-downs and mandatory unpaid faculty furlough days are listed here. The entire campus will be shut-down on the STATE BUDGET CAMPUS CLOSURE DAYS. In addition, each faculty member is required to designate six additional unpaid furlough days, when we are not permitted to be available for class, office hours, or e-mail. These will be different for each faculty member.

•	Monday, August 24: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

•	Wednesday, August 26: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

•	Tuesday, September 8: STATE BUDGET CAMPUS CLOSURE DAY

•	Friday, October 9: STATE BUDGET CAMPUS CLOSURE DAY

•	Monday, October 12: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

•	Monday, November 2: STATE BUDGET CAMPUS CLOSURE DAY

•	Tuesday, November 24: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

•	Wednesday, December 9: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

•	Friday, December 18: State Budget Faculty Furlough Day

8/15/2009

subject to change until the first day of class 8/31/2009