The main knowledge provided by the course are: (1) the origins of modern European constitutionalism (2) the history of civil law codification and constitutional history, with (3) a specific focus on the role played by general principles.
For students regularly attending classes:
- class notes and materials indicated by the professor during the course.
For non-attending students: Giovanni CAZZETTA, Codice civile e identità giuridica nazionale. Percorsi e appunti per una storia delle codificazioni moderne, Torino, Giappichelli, 2018, Cap. I-VI, pp. 1-185.
- Maurizio FIORAVANTI, Lezioni di storia costituzionale, Torino, Giappichelli, 2021 (Parte prima: Le libertà fondamentali, pp. 1- 173)
Learning Objectives
Knowledge of the main characteristics of modern law and of the juridical culture of the 19th and 20th century. Focus on the most important arguments of the period between these two centuries and on the main doctrinal assumptions.
Skills: capability to put in the right historical dimension the laws and regulations of contemporary age by virtue of their recent past; capability to perceive the principal aspects of a certain juridical culture, following an interdisciplinary approach which stretches over the different dimensions of law.
Competencies: ability to catch and recognize the deep marks that history leaves on regulations and on the culture where it belongs.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of private law, constitutional law and medieval and modern legal history.
Teaching Methods
The course will take place in the form of lectures and seminar activities for a total of 48 hours, with a focus on the most relevant european historical sources. With reference to legal texts and theoretical interpretations, the lectures will aim to highlight the importance of legal history as a critical tool for understanding current legal issues.
Type of Assessment
The oral examination will aim to verify: a) Knowledge of the concepts and ideas discussed during the course; b) Ability to process these concepts in an autonomous way; c) Awareness of historicity as necessary aspect of law and knowledge of historical and conceptual roots of legal institutions
Course program
The main subjects of the course are: the notion of codification. The constitutions, the limit of the sovereign power and individual rights. The French Revolution: natural law, tensions between law and rights, tensions between freedom and equality. The French Revolution, its different Constitutions and the attempts to enact a civil code. The Napoleonic Code. The Restoration after Napoleon’s Empire and the difficult path towards codified constitutions. The importance of civil law codification: the Italian case and the pre-unitary civil codes. Liberal ideas and constitutions: the Italian “Statuto Albertino”. Civil code and national identity: the civil code as constitution in Italy during liberalism. The crisis of the code system. Social laws: rule of law and the rise of welfare state. Corporativism. Codifications, constitutions and totalitarianism.The Weimar Constitution and its influence on European legal culture. The Italian Constitution. Constitutional laws and civil law after the Constitution. Legal principles and law: the problem of labour law from the Civil code to the Constitution. European law and legal principles.