Storia del diritto medievale e moderno (GIU) - Eng

Legal history from Middle to Modern Age

Novara

Prof. Federico Alessandro Goria

Teaching language: Italian

Contents: the course will deepen the development of the legal phenomenon through many centuries, namely from the crisis of the late Roman Empire (third century AD.) to the Constitutionalism and the rising of Codification of law in the nineteenth century. Due to a time span of this magnitude, will be analyzed key aspects of the development of the law, in terms of sources, the evolution of institutions and legal thought. Particular attention will be devoted to the evolution of public law and the progressive development of the political bodies, especially during the Medieval and Modern Age.

Textbooks:

G.S. Pene Vidari, Storia del diritto. Età medievale e moderna, Giappichelli, Torino, 2011;

G.S. Pene Vidari, Storia del diritto. Età contemporanea, Giappichelli, Torino 2012.

Students attending will receive specific indication about their study texts in class.

Educational goals: students must have, in addition to the specific knowledge required by the course, the understanding of the complexity of the legal phenomenon in its diachronic and geographic evolution, will be able to grasp the variety of sources system and the contribution of each in the formation of the legal universe. He must be able to recognize the main features of each historical period, to be able to correctly time schools of thought and institutions.

Prerequisites: None

Teaching methods: Front lessons; using slides to download from DIR, only for attending students.

Assessment methods: Oral examinations

Extended program:

Crisis of the Roman Empire, relations with the Christians
Roman-Barbarian Legislation
Customs of the Germanic peoples
Italy and the Barbarians: Goths (Edict of Theodoric and public organization)
The compilation of Justinian in the East and its extension to Italy
Italy and the Barbarians: Longobards (edicts of rulers, criminal and matrimonial, organization of the kingdom)
Rise of the papal monarchy and its relations with the Frankish kingdom
Birth of the Holy Roman Empire
Fief (birth and evolution)
Investiture Controversy
The rise of the University

Teaching school of Bologna

Birth and formation of the first collections of canon law
Evolution of the medieval Commune and its relation with the Empire; theories on statutory authority
School of Commentators
Relations between the ius commune and the rising of national customs and laws (France, Netherlands, Spain and Germany)
Birth and development of the English common law
The communis opinio
Birth and evolution of the Great Courts
Legal humanism
Development of absolutism (France, Duchy of Savoy)
Ordinances of Louis XIV
Ordinances of Louis XV and subsequent consolidations
Natural law (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Pufendorf, Leibniz)
The French school: Domat and Pothier
The Enlightenment: Montesquieu and Rousseau
The French Revolution and the first Constitutions
Napoleonic era: the constitution of 1799 and the Cispadane and Cisalpina republics
Allgemeines Landrecht of the Prussian State of 1794
French Civil Code of 1804
Oppositions to Codification: the Historical School of von Savigny
The Restoration in Italy
The policy of Charles Albert: codes and constitution
Legislation of the Italian States
Legislation of the Kingdom of Italy