1. For STUDENTS REGULARLY ATTENDING CLASSES:
The exam will be based on
A. Excerpts from works of Anglo-American literature, films and other materials (doctrine, case law, etc.), most of which uploaded in advance on the Moodle platform. These will be the object of presentation and discussion in class.
B. A literary work (or excerpts), assigned at the beginning of the course, that will form the basis of the work in the forum debate.
2. STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND CLASSES should prepare for the exam using the following materials:
A. A book, selected in the following list:
- J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- J. Austen, Emma (1815)
- H. Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
- T. Capote, In Cold Blood (1965)
- K. Stockett, The Help (2009)
- I. McEwan, The Children Act (2014);
B. The following materials, available online (in open access or in the university library by making a search thanks to OneSearch library system):
- James Boyd White, Establishing Relations between Law and Other Forms of Thought and Language, in Erasmus Law Review, 2008, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 3-22, in Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper Series Working Paper No. 113/2008 (in SSRN, The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1142827);
- James Boyd White, The Cultural Background of the Legal Imagination, in Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper Series Working Paper No. 180/2010 (In SSRN, The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1535599);
- James Boyd White, Law as Language: Reading Law and Reading Literature, in Texas Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 3, 1982, pp. 415-445;
- the following chapters of the book of Robert A. Ferguson, Practice Extended: Beyond Law and Literature, Columbia University Press, 2016: cap. II, The U.S. Constitution as Literature (pp. 17-34; CODA, How to read a Courtroom Novel (pp. 265-278).
3. For students who do not attend classes and already added Diritto Anglo-Americano (Italian language) into their student career, the exam should be prepared on the basis of the following materials:
A. A. Sansone, Diritto e letteratura, Giuffrè, Milano, 2001, pp. 1-4, 15-19, 34-43, 68-71, 73-142 (available at copisteria "Centro Stampa il Prato", via Carlo del Prete, 38/r);
B. J. Boyd White, Quando le parole perdono il loro significato, Giuffrè, Milano, pp. I-XIX, 1-8, 13-45, 255-296, 349-408;
C. In addition, one of the following books:
- J. Austen, Orgoglio e pregiudizio (1813);
- V. Woolf, Una stanza tutta per sé (1929);
- H. Lee, Il buio oltre la siepe (1960);
- P. Roth, La macchia umana (2000);
- I. McEwan, La ballata di Adam Henry (2014).
Learning Objectives
The course aims at offering to the students an in-depth analysis of some legal aspects that are typical of the Anglo-American area, applying the Law and Literature movement methodology. The course intends to foster the capacity to observe and reflect on law, adopting a vision wider than the traditional one and a perspective not limited to the technical legal point of view.
By the analysis of narrative texts and the viewing of movies, students will develop the capacity to understand the legal phenomena, adopting the conceptual framework, the interpretative instruments and the methods of evaluation that are typical of literature.
Drawing attention to the legal literary features, the students will be able to better understand the Anglo-American legal culture. The students will also be able to contextualize within the historical, political and social framework several specific aspects of the Anglo-American legal culture, such as the role of the judge and of the legal process, the legal position of women and of ethnic or religious minorities.
Prerequisites
"Constitutional law I" and "Civil law I" shall be already taken. "Comparative legal systems" is strongly recommended.
This requirement does not apply to Erasmus+ students and other exchange students.
Teaching Methods
The course includes a part of lectures and a part of innovative teaching, organized through thematic workshops set up as a forum on the Moodle platform, the results of which are presented and discussed in class. Namely, at the beginning of the course, students will be divided into groups, assigned a literary work or a film belonging to the English or American repertoire, and asked to discuss the thesis emerging from it. To this end, students will use the Moodle platform, discussing and comparing the different positions in a common space (forum).
This teaching method intends to encourage active participation in discussion, group working and critical reflection. The analysis of a topic starting from a literary work o a film discussed in a forum widens the possibilities of argumentation and get the students accustomed to managing a constructive and correct dialogue.
Moreover, the course syllabus and the materials that are instrumental to the preparation and study of each lesson will be available to attending students through the Moodle platform.
Further information
In order to attend the course, students shall subscribe to the Moodle platform by the first week of classes.
The enrolment in the Moodle platform is necessary in order to access to the course syllabus, sources and materials and to participate in the innovative teaching activity.
Type of Assessment
For ATTENDING students, the exam consists of active participation in class, in-class analysis of assigned materials, group work in the forum, and subsequent in-class presentation.
For NON ATTENDING STUDENTS the examination is oral usually consists of three questions.
The first question deals with a broad topic, in order to allow the student to show her knowledge as well as the ability to connect the different parts of the program using the comparative method.
The second question might be narrower and deals with a different part of the program.
The third question deals with a book that has been chosen among those listed under A).
Course program
The course intends to examine the Law and Literature movement, since its American origins, at the beginning of the XX century, with J. Wigmore and B.N. Cardozo, and its development, especially since the Seventies of the last century, with J. Boyd White and J. Allen Smith.
In the first part of the course, two perspectives of the Law and Literature movement will be analyzed: Law "as" literature and law "in" literature. The first considers the literary aspects of the legal text, questioning if the legal text could be analyzed and interpreted applying literary interpretative methods. The second aims at highlighting the legal aspects that have been taken into consideration by some classical and contemporary works of English and American origin.
Specila attention will also be given to the relation between law, literature and cinema.
Lectures will be alternated with innovative teaching, organized through thematic workshops, e-learning tools, and film viewing.
The final part of the course will consist of the presentation and discussion in class of the work done in the forum debate. The topics to be explored in the forum debate will be defined in the first lessons, in view of the number of students attending, and may concern, for example, the following: process, judge and procedural narrative; justice and ethics; legal status of women; integration and condition of particular ethnic or religious minorities, also as a consequence of the English colonialism.
Sustainable Development Goals 2030
This course contributes to the implementation of SDG 2030.