Introduction to legal comparison and to the role of comparative law in the education of lawyers who intend to operate in a global context. In particular, the students will be exposed to the historical evolution and the main features of the sources of law in the civil law and common law traditions.
V. Varano, V. Barsotti, La tradizione giuridica occidentale. Testo e materiali per un confronto civil law common law, 6a ed., Torino, Giappichelli, 2018, chapters I, II, III, IV.
Learning Objectives
The course aims to provide an introduction to legal comparison, as well as the knowledge of the differences and similarities of the civil law and common law traditions, mainly through the study of the sources of law.
Students will be able to understand and interpret correctly legislative materials, case law and doctrine of a foreign legal system in order to frame and solve legal problems through the comparative method.
Moreover, students will acquire the capacity to understand the differences and similarities characterizing the two Western legal traditions and the awareness of the importance of culture in the shaping of the legal traditions that will enable them to adopt a critical approach to legal categories.
This knowledge, together with a familiarity with different languages and legal concepts, will be useful also in view of a future career in international institutions and profit and non-profit organizations.
Prerequisites
"Constitutional law I" and "Civil law I" shall be already taken. This requirement does not apply to Erasmus+ students and other exchange students.
Teaching Methods
Classes are taught by both lectures, self-evaluation tests, and thematic workshops. An interaction among students and teacher will be constantly encouraged.
Cases and scholarly writings included in the text book or available on the Moodle platform will be discussed in class.
Teaching will adopt e-learning methodologies through the Moodle platform and the Student Response System tools. These methodologies will help for student self-evaluation, thematic workshops and tests.
The detailed course syllabus and the materials discussed in class will be available to attending students at the beginning of the course.
Further information
In order to attend the course, students shall subscribe to the Moodle platform. The keyword will be given to students by the first week of classes.
Type of Assessment
Oral examination usually consisting of two or 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, in order to check the existence of serious gaps.
The teacher may ask a third question when the previous answers leave a margin of doubt about the evaluation to be assigned, for example because there is a significant difference in the evaluation of the previous answers.
The evaluation is sufficient if all answers are sufficient and there are no serious gaps or mistakes. The evaluation is excellent if all the questions are treated exhaustively, with a critical approach, a correct use of legal language and of the comparative method.
Course program
The course aims to provide an introduction to the main features of the Western Legal Tradition and the comparative method, mainly through the study of the sources of law.
After an introduction on the goals and methods of comparative law, the legal families and the legal transplants, classes will focus on the two main families within the Western Legal Tradition: civil law and common law.
In particular, the course will deal with the topic of civil law and common law formative periods and historical evolutions, the sources of law, the judicial system, legal education and the legal professions, with the purpose of highlighting the legal aspects that characterize each family, and some recent converging trends.
The last part of the course will be organized through thematic workshops that will be devoted to review and deepen the main topics analyzed in class.