Diritto canonico/Diritto comparato delle religioni
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
Students are requested to have an interest in understanding other cultures and some mental agility in order to break the “schemas” of the legal positivism and of the State centrality.
Oral examination.
The aim of the course is to illustrate the fundamental elements of the law of the Catholic Church (canon law) and other religious laws (Islamic law and Jewish law), highlighting the peculiar characteristics of religious laws and their role in regulating the lives of the faithful. The analysis of confessional juridical systems is particularly relevant today for the students in Law, given the context of religious and cultural pluralism of today's societies: religious laws, in fact, are different from the secular ones, but increasingly interact with the state legal systems, also generating potential contrasts between different rules.
Students must therefore demonstrate that they have acquired a basic knowledge of the fundamental characteristics of confessional rights and of the specificities and differences of religious rights with respect to secular ones.
In addition, we intend to offer a knowledge of how the different religious laws regulate some issues relevant to the lives of the adherents and for their interaction with state legal systems (marriage, gender issues, religious rules concerning health and dietary rules).
Student must also demonstrate that they have acquired awareness of the context of legal pluralism of today's society in which the different religious traditions coexist. The skills to be achieved also concern the ability to make comparisons between different legal systems, and the ability to understand the different ways in which religious and secular laws apply.
In the first part of the course (3-6 hours) we will analyze the common characteristics of the different religious legal systems and the differences with the secular legal systems.
In the second part, the essential structures of each confessional right will be examined (sources, historical evolution, fundamental principles, 3-6 hours for each religious legal system).
In the third part of the course (remaining hours) we will analyze how canon, Jewish and Islamic laws regulate their internal organization as well as some particular issues, that are relevant for the life of the adherents and for their interaction with state legal systems (marriage, relations between the sexes, religious rules about health and dietary rules).
- introduction to the comparative law of religions
- what are religious laws: their specificity and differences with secular rights
- canon law: historical introduction and sources; a brief overview of the structures of government in the Church, the pontifical primacy, the sacraments
- Jewish law: sources and fundamental principles
- Islamic law: historical introduction, sources, principles, outline of some current problems
- the meaning of belonging to a religious community (in the Canon Law, Islamic Law and Jewish Law)
- internal organization of religious communities
- marriage in canonical, Jewish and Islamic law
- interreligious marriages
- the relationship between the sexes and the status of women in religious laws
- food rules in religious laws
- religious laws and health issues, e.g. circumcision, end of life.
Classes will be held through lectures (giving the overall framework on the different subjects). Besides lessons, students will find documents, reading materials, power point presentations and videos uploaded via the E-learning platform. Other teachers and researchers will participate in some lessons in order to provide a more in-depth analysis about some specific issues.
In the case of online course, lessons will be held both through Power Point presentations with audio recording and through “live” lessons via Microsoft Teams.
The teacher will be tutoring students by appointment, also via Microsoft Teams (contact through email).