At the end of this seminar, you will know...

• what will happen during this semester, what you will learn and why it matters
• what is a state, how it is created, what are its elements
• what do we expect from a state, i.e. what are its tasks
• what is "theory of state" and how to study it

 Materials

Please read pages 7-19 in Krošlák and one of the following Czech textbooks:

• Filip & Svatoň: str. 15-20 + 32-55
• Reschová a kol.: str. 1-32 (prvních 9 stran je volně dostupných ZDE)
• Pavlíček a kol.: str. 45-66
• Holländer: str. 51-102

Please make sure you have also read one of the Czech textbooks, ideally the first one. See the introduction to this interactive syllabus for an explanation why this is important.

For further information, see this textbook chapter:

 Written assignment No.1

The first written assignment consists of two parts.

The first part is about YOU: please write a short text about who you are, what you do, what interests you, why you have chosen the law faculty in Brno, and what you expect from your studies here. One page max.

The second part is more "academic" and you can choose from two options. Please choose only one of the two options and write an essay of maximum 2 pages (A4).

a) listen to this lecture by Kateřina Šimáčková and explain how you understand the words "justice" and "injustice" and what is the role of law in the society.

b) listen to this lecture by Michael Sandel and explain how you would vote about the three questions (flutes, golf cart and homosexual marriages) and why.

When writing your essay, try to be conscious of how you structure your text. It should be divided into paragraphs and you should think of the unwritten rule of a lazy reader: imagine that a very lazy person is reading your essay and that they only read the introduction and conclusion, and then the first sentence (or maybe only the first line) of each paragraph. Try to structure your essay so that even this lazy reader gets a general idea about what you are trying to convey.

Please include both parts of this assignment into a single file (word or pdf) and submit this file by Monday 30 September 2019 12:00 (noon) into the so-called "homework vault" (see link below). 

Before submitting, please check the following:

• Do I answer all the questions in my essay?
• Do I respect the minimum/maximum length of the essay?
• Is my essay formally coherent? (same font, justified, empty space between paragraphs)
• Is my essay ready for submission? (typos, grammar, commas - re-read it!)
• Is my essay structured meaningfully? (intro, several paragraphs, conclusion)
• If the topic requires, do I refer to relevant sources? (not Wikipedia!)

Thank you in advance, I am looking forward to meeting you next week! If anything remains unclear, please do not hesitate to contact me by email (zuzana.vikarska@mail.muni.cz).