History of Medieval and Modern Law
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
Basic knowledge of medieval and modern European history.
The actual degree of knowledge reached by the students will be assessed at the beginning of every class. The students will interact directly with the professor in resuming the previous statements, or asking questions, or examining them closely. All the students are requested to take part, as to become more confident in addressing in a large audience.
The final oral examination will take place before an examination board, chaired by professor Danusso, according to the current academic rules, and the mark will be in fractions of 30.
The final examination will run as follow. First, a question of general contents, then a number of questions on more specific issues, as to ascertain the acquisition of the notions requested (70%), to evaluate the communication skills acquired (10%), the appropriate understanding and the use of legal terminology (10%), the ability in logic and discourse structuring (10%).
Students, as they reply the questions, should respect the linkage of the historical events as well as the historical evolution of principles and rules of law, and should demonstrate to be able to make connections and comparisons among the various subjects treated.
This course aims to offer an overview of the evolution of the Italian and European Law from the fall of the Roman Empire to the XVIII century. The course aims to highlight the various perspectives of the law over time, emphasizing the connections between the legal aspects and socio-political aspects in different historical contexts. It will highlight some controversal aspects of justice, criminal law, civil law, constitutional law. Goals. Knowledge and comprehension. To become aware that law principles regulate social relationship; to understand that law tradition has to be considered from an historical point of view, and how it followed or changed the previous rules; to realize that the law aspects are strictly linked among them; to realise that the law processes depend from the political, cultural and socioeconomic conditions; to work out the relations between politic power and absolute law in government, in the Enlightened absolutism; to understand the development of the European law from the end of the Roman Empire up to the end of the eighteen century; to realise how customs, law, authorities and judiciary have changed in the time passing and how they interacted.
The system of law in the High Middle Ages and in the Roman-German Kingdoms; the birth of the institutions and the law of the Catholic Church; the Holy Roman Empire; the feudal system; the city-states and the first monarchic States; the Universities and the rediscovery of Justinian code, with the Glossators first and the Commentators later; the “consilia” and the “communis opinio”; the Humanism and the so-called “Scuola Culta”; the absolutistic States and the Great Tribunals; the doctrine of Natural Law; the XVIII century.
Adriano CAVANNA, Storia del diritto moderno in Europa. Le fonti e il pensiero giuridico, vol 1, Milano, Giuffrè.
This course runs in the first semester. There are 65 frontal teaching hours (corresponding to 10 credits) enriched and integrated by teaching materials put in the e-learning platform (abstracts from Justinian law, from the Glossators’ texts, from Bartolo di Sassoferrato and Baldo degli Ubaldi, from consilia, from the judgements by the Great Tribunals and the 18th century laws).