law

FRANCESCA LAURA SIGISMONDI

It is intended to provide students with an historical perspective on legal systems, legal thought and legal procedures in the Middle Ages, having special attention for the plurality of legal experiences.
At the end of the course the students will have acquired flexible and wide legal skills through the history. They will be able to understand both the complexity and the relativity of categories, concepts and legal systems in any context.
It is therefore intended as an aim to achieve, that the students develop their critical skills, and that they problematize the historical-juridical notions acquired. The expected result is the ability of communicating on matters of medieval legal history, helped by a correct use of language.

Knowledge and Understanding: The purpose of the course is to give students an adequate knowledge of the main issues related to the history of European law, focusing on the connections between legal history and political, social and economic history.
Applying knowledge and understanding: The course is also aimed to give students adequate tools to interpret and contextualize medieval and modern age legal sources.
Making judgements: The course aims to help students develop their critical skills. The expected result is that they are able to assess the sources of law in various stages of European legal history in a problematic way.
Communication skills: At the end of the course students are expected to have acquired an adequate ability to communicate information, notions and concepts pertaining to the discipline, also through the use of a correct legal language.
Learning skills: At the end of the course the expected result is that the students are able to continue independently in the study of the discipline and in updating what they have learned and that they are able to acquire new skills through the use of bibliographic and documentary sources, also in order to undertake further training paths.

Students should have taken the exams of Istituzioni di diritto privato, Istituzioni di diritto pubblico and Istituzioni di diritto romano.

The course will examine the main topics about medieval legal history, focusing on the sources of law, the development of legal science and the legal systems in Italy and in Europe. Among the main topics covered will be the Corpus juris civilis of Justinian, the Germanic laws, lordship and feud, the evolution of civil and canonistic legal science, the legal systems of medieval Italy, the relationship between ius commune and iura propria, the birth of the English common law system.

Mario Caravale, Ordinamenti giuridici dell’Europa medievale , Bologna, Il Mulino, 1994, except the following parts:

- parte prima, cap. IV, parr. 5-6, pp. 174-190;
- parte prima, cap. V, parr. 5-7, pp. 209-227;
- parte seconda, cap. IV, pp. 363-393;
- parte seconda, cap. V, parr. 7-8, pp. 449-471;
- parte seconda, cap. VIII, pp. 549-627;
- parte seconda, cap. X, pp. 649-706.

The course is based on lectures and seminars.

The evaluation will be by oral exam at the end of the course. Attending students will be asked only questions on topics addressed during lessons. In order to pass the exam students will have to demonstrate that they have an adequate knowledge of the main issues related to the medieval legal history. To report a grade not lower than 18/30, students will have to demonstrate that they have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the subjects of the course. To achieve a score of 30/30 cum laude, students will have to demonstrate that they have acquired an excellent knowledge of all the topics covered during the course.