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Unit of study_
LAWS6827: Legal Responsibility and Philosophy of Mind
2025 unit information
Many legal doctrines in both criminal and civil law depend upon being able to characterise conduct as intentional leading to ascriptions of fault blame or responsibility. Most serious criminal offences depend upon establishing mens rea as a relevant mental element. Civil liability is often dependent upon whether conduct was intended or whether the cause of loss was brought about by either intentional conduct or conduct involving some lesser notion of fault. All of these doctrines make important assumptions about the nature of our mental states and the operation of mind. Many of these assumptions are philosophically controversial and current developments in the philosophy of mind may lead us to reconsider or radically revise our attitudes to the law. The unit will look at contemporary philosophical work on free will consciousness mind and causation and apply this work to present problems in regard to concepts of legal responsibility. Refer to the Sydney Law School timetable - https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/4533/pages/postgraduate-lecture-timetable
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Sydney Law School
| Study level | Postgraduate |
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| Academic unit | Law |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. gain some familiarity with the debates in contemporary philosophy regarding the nature of mind, consciousness, free will, personal identity, and causation
- LO2. obtain insight into the significance of the philosophical concepts described above to an understanding of legal responsibility in both the criminal and civil law
- LO3. gain an understanding of the significance of the philosophical concepts to contemporary legal issues regarding punishment, the grounds of civil liability and the role of mind and intention in regard to legal reasoning and interpretation
- LO4. undertake through a class presentation and a research essay a detailed understanding of the course issues in regard to specific topics concerning the interaction of contemporary philosophy of mind and legal doctrine
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
There are no availabilities for this year.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
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Semester 2 2025
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Normal evening | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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