The law program teaches us practical skills but does not automatically provide insight into the nature of our work as lawyers. The subject builds on the students' knowledge base—on legal methods, legal rules, and legal principles—to promote reflection on the structure of law, the relationship between law and morality, and ethical requirements for legal practitioners. Among the central questions are: What distinguishes law from other disciplines? What are the building blocks of law and legal rules? What value choices guide our interpretation and application of law? To what extent is law based on concepts of justice, rule of law, autonomy, or human dignity? How can legal interventions towards citizens be justified and legitimized? Does the legal method allow for the consideration of moral factors, and how are such factors expressed if so? What ethical requirements apply to the professional practice of lawyers?

The subject has a general part and an applied part. The general part introduces tools and theory for analyzing legal rules and understanding the structure of the legal system. The applied part ties the tools to questions from three selected areas of law. The most central perspective is from legal methods and sources of law, which provides students with tools to distinguish between the different components of legal rules and reflect on what actually happens when we interpret and apply legal rules. The perspective from tort law prompts students to reflect on some explicit and implicit premises, including causation, the distribution of economic burdens, and the significance of luck. The perspective from criminal law problematizes the interpretation of criminal grounds and the justification of punishment.