General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6231 / JDOC6231 |
| Course name: | Justice |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
This course is about justice. We will focus on the theme of how people learn to care about justice: why do people come to identify the plight with marginalized and oppressed people and what motivates them to do something about it? The course draws on both Chinese and Western sources. We will begin by discussing Xunzi’s view of how we overcome a natural tendency to selfishness by means of rituals that make us care about those with less power. Then we look John Rawls’ account of how people come to develop a sense of justice in part III of A Theory of Justice. Then we will discuss Anthony’s Appiah’s book The Honor Code and Martha Nussbaum’s book Poetic Justice, works that shed further light on how people come to care about justice. The class will be seminar based, with student presentations and lots of time for discussion.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Daniel Bell | dabell@hku.hk | CCT 816 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Learn the ideas of influential works that shed light on how people come to care about justice.
CLO 2 Learn to debate and discuss with the aim of learning from diverse perspectives.
CLO 3 Develop own ideas on the course theme.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 20% | 1, 2, 3 | |
| Research paper | 2 May 2024 | 80% | 1 | 1, 2, 3 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be confirmed by convenor.
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 11 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 11 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor.
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list | Xunzi; A Theory of Justice by John Rawls; The Honor Code by Anthony Appiah; Poetic Justice by Martha Nussbaum |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/