Classical Tradition Seminar Syllabus

Readings for an upcoming seminar on the Classical Legal Tradition and Natural law

For the enjoyment of readers of The New Digest, we are presenting here Professor Christiansen’s syllabus (subject to some revisions) for his upcoming seminar this Fall at Regent University Law School, the Classical Tradition and Natural Law.

Key: “Mcall” = Brian M. McCall, The Architecture of Law: Rebuilding Law in the Classical Tradition; “Vermeule” = Adrian Vermeule, Common Good Constitutionalism; “ST”= Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (“I-I” = Prima Pars; “I-II”= Secunda Partis; etc.), available here: https://www.newadvent.org/summa/

• Session 1 - Metaphysical Foundations: Logos, Motion, Forms, Substance, Accidents, Act, Potency, Causes:

  • Handout 1 – Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle (available on Canvas)

• Session 2 - Metaphysics and Virtue Ethics:

  • Nicomachean Ethics, (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8438/8438-h/8438-h.htm)

    • Book I, Ch. IV - Ch. V (end of third paragraph

    • Book II, Ch. I – VI

    • Book V

  • Politics, (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6762/pg6762-images.html)

    • Book III, Ch. VI – XVIII

    • Book IV, Ch. X

• Session 3 - Biblical Foundations + Roman Legal Developments:

  • The Holy Bible

    • Genesis 1:26-27

    • Wisdom 6:1-6

    • Daniel 2:20-21, 3:1-30

    • John 1:1-4; 14

    • Romans 2:14-16, 13:1-7

    • Acts 5:29

    • 1 Peter 2:15-16

    • Galatians 5:1

  • Handout 2 - Gaius (Institutes 1.1) and Cicero (excerpts from De Legibus)

• Session 4 - Patristic Foundations of the Classical Tradition and the Spread of the Classical Tradition

  • 1 Clement 60:4; 61:1-2 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm)

  • Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, Chapter 2
    (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0308.htm)

  • Origen, Against Celsus, Book 1, Ch. 1-4, Book 5, Ch. 37
    (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0416.htm)

  • Ambrose Ep. 73
    (https://tcdp.readthedocs.io/projects/letters-of-ambrose/en/latest/letter_lxxiii.html)

  • Ambrose De officio, Book 3, Ch. 3-4
    (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34013.htm

  • Augustine, The Problem of Free Choice, Book 1 (start at p. 39, para. 3.6 and read to page 63, end of para. 13.27) (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Problem_of_Free_
    Choice/KYvYAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover)

  • Institutes of Justinian, Titles I and II (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5983/
    5983-h/5983-h.htm#link2H_4_0002)

• Session 5 - Aquinas - The Essence of law

  • ST, I-II, Q 90, art. I, 2, 3, 4

  • McCall pp. 1-47

• Session 6 - Aquinas - Eternal Law

  • ST, I-II, Q. 93, art. 1, 2, 3, 6

  • McCall pp. 49-79

• Session 7 - Aquinas - Natural law

  • ST, I-II, Q. 94, art. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  • McCall pp. 81-126

• Session 8 - Aquinas - Natural Law Continued

  • McCall pp. 127-174

• Session 9 - Aquinas - Natural Law Continued

  • Same as day before

• Session 10 - Aquinas - Divine Law

  • ST, I-II, Q. 91, art. 4

  • McCall pp. 175-183, 190-204 (end with second paragraph), 207-210.

• Session 11 - Aquinas - Human Law

  • ST, I-II, Q 95, art. I, 2; Q. 96, art. 1, 2, 3; Q. 97 art. 1, 2, 3, 4

  • McCall pp. 211-264

• Session 12 - Aquinas - The Unjust “Law”

  • ST, I-II, Q 96, art. 4, 5, 6; ST, II-II, Q. 60, art. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  • McCall pp. 327-374

• Session13 - Aquinas - The Unjust “Law” Continued

  • Same as day before

• Session 14 - The Enlightenment: Rejections, Confusions, and Continuities of the Tradition

  • Handout 3 – Enlightenment

  • William Blackstone, Commentaries, Introduction, § 2 “Of the Nature of Laws in General” (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_intro.asp#2)

  • John W. Byrne, The Basis of Natural Law in Locke’s Philosophy (available on Canvas)

  • James Madison, Federalist No. 47, second paragraph (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed47.asp

• Session 15 - Smashing the Tradition: Positivism and “Realism”

  • Handout 4 – John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined

  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Natural Law (available on Canvas)

  • Southern Pac. Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205 (1917) (Holmes, J., dissenting) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/244/205/

  • Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/250/616/

  • Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) (Holmes, J.) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/200/

• Session 16 - [Feedback session on working drafts of student essays]

• Session 17 - Common Good Constitutionalism Introduced + the Common Good

  • Vermeule pp. 1- 51

• Session 18 - Classical Legal Tradition in America

  • Vermeule pp. 52-90

  • Hon. Paul B. Matey, Indispensable Obligatory: Natural Law and the American Legal Tradition (available on Canvas)

  • Saikrishna Prakash, Spirit (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4983925)

• Session 19 - Critique of Originalism

  • Vermeule pp. 91-116

• Session 20 - [Feedback session on working drafts of student essays]

• Session 21 - “Common Good Originalism” and Critiques of Classical Theory

  • Joel Alicea – The Moral Authority of Original Meaning (https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol98/iss1/1/)

  • Hon. William Pryor, Against Living Common Goodism (https://fedsoc.org/fedsoc-review/against-living-common-goodism

  • Hon. Naomi Rao, Textualism’s Political Morality (https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
    article=4996&context=caselrev)

• Session 22 - Critique of Progressive Constitutionalism

  • Vermeule 117-133

• Session 23 - Examples of Classical Thinking in Contemporary Law

  • Vermeule pp. 134 - 184

• Session 24 - Examples of Classical Thinking in Contemporary Law Continued

  • Same as day before

• Session 25 - Examples of Classical Thinking in Contemporary Law Continued

  • Available on Canvas:

    • Woodson v. Murdock

    • Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co (majority, concurrence, and dissent)

    • Beer Co v. Massachusetts

    • Stone v. Mississippi

    • DC v. Colts

• Session 26 - Classical Theory Outside the United States

  • Conway v. Minister for Housing (available on Canvas) Note: This is an Irish Supreme Court decision, which means the opinions of the Justices are issued seriatim – we will be reading them all.