96215 - INTERPRETAZIONE DEL DIRITTO E TECNICHE DELL'ARGOMENTAZIONE GIURIDICA: ETA' MEDIOEVALE E MODERNA

Learning outcomes

This module will focus on the approach of medieval and early modern jurists to the interpretation of the sources of law of their era (12^th-16^th century), as well as on the techniques they used. To this end, attention will be especially paid to primary sources dealing with actual cases taken from the practice of the time.

Course contents

‘Thinking as a jurist’ implies an approach that reads reality in a perspective that does not forget the given historical conditions of each era. This leads to an attitude that has to take into account the peculiarities of the language used by jurists and their dialectical approach to the sources of law. This module will in particular deal with the method of jurists in the late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Age, that is from the new dawn of Roman law in the 11^th century down to the long age of Ius Commune.

Among the topics that will be covered, the following will be the most important:

• legal order as seen by medieval jurists;
• the different genres of legal literature at the time;
• the argumentative techniques and strategies used by medieval and early modern jurists.

Seminars will mainly focus on primary sources, thus enabling students to experience how interpreters tackled the relationship between the law and each individual case, or the one between specific provisions of law and the legal order.

Readings/Bibliography

It is highly advisable that students interested in this module attend classes as often as they can. Actually, they will just have to work on the sources discussed during the seminars. For those who are unable to attend classes, Andrea Padovani, Modernità degli antichi. Breviario di argomentazione forense, Bologna, BUP, 2006, pp. 25-131, is required reading.

Teaching methods

Seminars will mainly consist of the discussion of medieval and early modern sources that can show how jurists saw their role and their approach to legak texts. Students will be encouraged to identify both the techinques used by jurists and their vision of the legal order, as expressed in their works, especially when they were called to provide an answer to the very practical problems of their times.

Assessment methods

Exams will consist of an oral test covering the sources analyzed during the seminars. Assessing the students' ability to identify the vision medieval jurists had of the legal order as well as their use of rhetoric and dialectics is the aim of the test. For those who do not attend classes, the same elements will have to be identified in Padovani's textbook.

In any case, students need to register for their exam on the Almaesami  website.

Teaching tools

The surces discussed during the seminars will be available on Virtuale. Students are strongly advised to subscribe to the mailing list
ugo.bruschi.SeminarioTecnicheArgomentazioneGiuridicaMedioevale
through www.dsa.unibo.it . The mailing list will be used in order to circulate useful information, such as urgent notices about classes. Students are asked to refrain from replying to the messages sent through the mailing list, as replies sometimes get lost. Instead, they should write directly to Dr Bruschi (ugo.bruschi@unibo.it ).

Students with learning disabilities (DSA) are more than welcome to contact Dr Bruschi in order to work out the best way of studying and/or taking the exam.

Office hours

See the website of Ugo Bruschi