91366 - EUROPEAN LEGAL HISTORY

Learning outcomes

During the course students will develop a basic knowledge of legislative sources and jurisprudential techniques as well as critical skills and abilities needed to understand current legal institutions; they will be able to reconstruct the evolution over time of the institutes studied, also by comparing the experiences of the different European legal systems; they will apply the notions learned to the analysis of regulatory sources relating to different eras and orders; they will understand the meaning of the rules and be able to grasp their spirit even taking into account the political, economic and social context of reference.

Course contents

This course provides an account of the development of legal thought, culture and institutions in medieval and early modern European history. It will focus mainly on the period between the 11th and 17th centuries, with occasional reference to relevant earlier and later periods. By examining the evolution of legal norms and institutions in widely differing contexts, the course aims to broaden students’ ability to think critically about legal institutions past and present, foreign and domestic, and to deepen their understanding of the historical and philosophical foundations of legal systems, as well as of the relationship between law, society and politics.

The main topics covered will be: the survival and transformation of the Roman legal heritage in Europe; the Romano-barbarian kingdoms and Germanic normative traditions; the Carolingian political and legal order; the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire; feudal law and the structures of lordship; the history of universities and of European legal culture; the revival of the study of Roman law in the universities; the formation of classical canon law; the ius commune and the construction of medieval legal science; the conflict between Church and Empire and its legal implications; communes, kingdoms and medieval legal orders; the origins and development of the English common law; legal humanism and the critique of medieval traditions; the formation of modern states; theories of sovereignty; the School of Salamanca and natural law thought; the origins of the law of nations and of international legal thought; the theoretical and institutional premises of modern constitutionalism and civil codifications.

For BAES students

For BAES students, the course will be divided into three equivalent parts, each worth 4 CFU. The first part will be devoted to the Early Middle Ages, the second to the Later Middle Ages, and the third to the early modern period. Students will be free to choose which part of the programme they wish to follow and will be assessed exclusively on that part.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students will be expected to prepare for the examination on the basis of the content of the lectures and the slides.

Non-attending students may prepare for the examination by studying the following textbook:

R. Lesaffer, European Legal History. A Cultural and Political Perspective, Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 1–14, 58–63, 109–113, 123–371, 380–389, 395–398, 432–436, 448–452.

For BAES students

For BAES students, the reading material will be divided as follows:

Part I: pp. 1–14, 58–63, 109–113, 123–191;
Part II: pp. 192–288;
Part III: pp. 289–371, 380–389, 395–398, 432–436, 448–452.

Teaching methods

Teaching will be provided through lectures supported by PPT presentations in which primary sources will be explored directly.

Assessment methods

Examinations will be conducted orally.

The exam will focus on the topics indicated in the 'Course contents' section and the student must demonstrate that he/she has acquired a good understanding of the subjects covered and is able, when prompted, to think about it insightfully and critically.

The following criteria will be used to assign the final mark (that will be out of 30):

- knowledge of a very limited number of topics, extensive help by the interviewer to address and answer the questions, basic but appropriate language 18-19;

- knowledge of a limited number of topics, ability to autonomously address basic topics, use of appropriate language → 20-24;

- comprehensive knowledge of the programme, ability to autonomously and critically analyse the relevant topic, use of specific terminology → 25-29;

- extensive knowledge of the programme, ability to reason autonomously and critically analyse the relevant topic, make connections between the topics, ability to master the specific terminology and ability to present thoughtful arguments. → 30-30L

Registration for the final examination must be completed through the AlmaEsami platform: https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm

Teaching tools

The course is entirely computer-aided by means of PPT presentations.

As a part of their preparation, students are encouraged to download the teaching materials that will be made available on the VLE.

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Lorenzo Maniscalco