74986 - Principles of European Legal Order

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide knowledge of European legal traditions, their origin in Roman and Medioeval law and their subsequent development in two distinct models: common law and civil law. At the end of the course, students will be able to: understand the basis of the European legal tradition and distinguish it from that of other regions; - know the origins of contracts and their differences in various national contexts;

Course contents

The course will be taught in the 2026/2027 academic year by Prof. Alvise Schiavon.

The course offers a reading of the Roman concept of empire – with particular attention to the legal mechanisms of legitimation and organization through which it was built – and traces how that model was reinterpreted at key turning points in later European political history, with particular attention to the ideological and political uses of Roman sources and tradition.

Special attention will be devoted to the use of Roman legal sources and conceptual frameworks in shaping the medieval, early modern, and contemporary European legal and political order. Significant emphasis will also be placed on the role of Roman sources in the formation of modern international law, in the debate over the legitimacy of colonialism, and in the development of the contemporary project of an integrated Europe.

The course is divided into three sections.

Antiquity. Ideological and legal features of Roman imperialism: the sources of legal justification for the acquisition of land and dominion over the sea; citizenship and the integration of foreign elites; the organization of the provinces.

Medieval and Modern periods. The use of Roman legal sources in defining the concept of iurisdictio; the emergence of Venice as an independent maritime power; oceanic trade routes, the rise of the modern nation-state, and the controversy over the freedom of the seas.

Contemporary age. James Bryce and the British Empire; Carl Schmitt, Simone Weil, and the Roman Empire; the United States and the EU as (declining) empires?

Readings/Bibliography

The instructor will provide the course materials needed to follow the lectures, as well as further readings for those wishing to explore specific topics in greater depth.

A useful introductory reading – intended solely to provide historical background – is Anthony Pagden, Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece to the Present (Modern Library 2001). 

W. Preise, History of International Law, Ancient Times to 1648, in Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law will provide essential insights about the origing of 'international law'.

Part 1 Antiquity 

Required:

Anthony Pagden, ‘Stoicism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Legacy of European Imperialism’ (2000) 7 Constellations 1, 4–20.

Suggested:

Rafael Domingo, ‘Roman Law and Global Constitutionalism’ (2019) 21 San Diego International Law Journal 217–240.

Part 2 Medieval and Modern ages

2.1 Middle age

Required

A. Wagner, ‘Lessons of Imperialism and of the Law of Nations: Alberico Gentili’s Early Modern Appeal to Roman Law’ (2012) 23(3) European Journal of International Law 873–886.

or

S. Cattelan, ‘The Defence of Venetian Dominion over the Adriatic Sea: Situating Paolo Sarpi c. 1600–1625’ (2021) 9(2) Comparative Legal History 1–31.

Suggested

Perruso. (2002). The Development of the Doctrine of Res Communes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d'histoire du droit / The Legal History Review, 70(1-2), 69-93

Daniel Lee, ‘Sources of Sovereignty: Roman Imperium and Dominium in Civilian Theories of Sovereignty’ (2012) 2 Politica Antica 79–94.

R. Fredona, ‘Angelo degli Ubaldi and the Gulf of the Venetians: Custom, Commerce, and the Control of the Sea Before Grotius’ in New Perspectives on the History of Political Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2018) 29–73

A. Weststeijn, ‘Commonwealths for Preservation and Increase: Ancient Rome in Venice and the Dutch Republic’ in Ancient Models in the Early Modern Republican Imagination (6 ff).

2.2 Modern age

Required

L. Benton and B. Straumann, ‘Acquiring Empire by Law: From Roman Doctrine to Early Modern European Practice’ (2010) 28(1) Law and History Review 1–38.

Suggested

L. Sicking and R. Lesaffer, ‘Beyond the Free Sea: The Law of the Sea in Renaissance Europe’ in J. Crawford and M. Koskenniemi (eds), The Cambridge History of International Law (Cambridge University Press 2025) 107–134.

E. Cavanagh, ‘Prescription and Empire from Justinian to Grotius’ (2017) 60 Historical Journal 273–299.

R. Lesaffer, ‘Argument from Roman Law in Current International Law: Occupation and Acquisitive Prescription’ (2005) 16 European Journal of International Law 25–28.

Part 3 Contemporary age

Required

C. Maier, ‘What Is an Empire?’ in Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors (Harvard University Press 2006) 24–50.

Jan Zielonka, Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union (Oxford University Press 2006) 11–20.

Suggested

J. Burbank, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (Princeton University Press 2010) 1–22.

Anthony Pagden, ‘Fellow Citizens and Imperial Subjects: Conquest and Sovereignty in Europe’s Overseas Empires’ (2005) 44(4) History and Theory 28–46.

G. Hamza, ‘The Life and Scientific Work of James Bryce, Author of “The Holy Roman Empire”’ (2023) 19(1–3) Polgári Szemle 287–290.

T. Champion, ‘The Appropriation of the Phoenicians in British Imperial Ideology’ (2001) 7 Nations and Nationalism 451–465.

Harold James, The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire (Princeton University Press 2006) 118 ff.

 

Assessment methods

To pass the exam, students are required to write a paper on a topic covered in class, or in any case related to the issues discussed during the course. The paper may be presented in class or discussed with the instructor during one of the exam sessions.

Non-attending students are invited to contact the instructor promptly to agree on course materials and a tailored assessment format.

Office hours

See the website of Gianni Santucci