There are not prerequisites.

The aim of the classes, considering the goals of the course in International, European and Comparative Legal Studies, is to introduce students to the complexity of legal phenomenon through the use of legal comparison.
By the end of the course the students will know the fundamental principles and legal styles of the common law and the civil law legal traditions, and the historical evolution of the two traditions.
The attended result by the students is the understanding of the different meanings of common law (for example, common law as Anglo-American legal tradition, common law as English law, common law as system of justice, common law as system of sources of law) and of civil law (for example, civil law as written law, civil law as jus commune, civil law as code law).
The students will gain the legal competences to make macro-comparison in the western legal tradition and the prerequisites to make micro-comparison.

The classes are divided in ten different units, covering the following subjects:

1. Law, history, and comparison (introduction and methodology);

2. The theory of legal systems.

3. The medieval common law.

4. The rule of law.

5. Common law as a model of justice - the legal professions.

6. Common law as a model of justice - the English system of the courts.

7. The sources of English law and the doctrine of binding precedent.

8. Brexit and beyond.

9. Meanings of civil law.

10. Civil law as a code law: comparative remarks.



Materials and texts will be suggested during classes.

• 1.  (A) Alisdair Gillespie The English Legal System (7th Edition) OUP, Oxford, 2019 » Pagine/Capitoli: selected chapters: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10
• 2.  (A) John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo The Civil Law Tradition, 4rd ed., An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America Stanford University Press, -, 2019 » Pagine/Capitoli: 1-192, chapters 16-17-18 excluded.

Program for attending students: materials and readings for the final examination will be suggested during classes and uploaded on the web-page of the teacher.

Program for non-attending students: selected chapters of the textbooks suggested

• The lectures will be divided in ten different units, according to the subjects
  mentioned above (see programme of the course). Each Unit will be divided into
  two parts: in the first part the teacher will explain the contents of the Unit,
  using a power point presentation. At the same time, the teacher will suggest
  readings to students. In the second part of the Unit there will be a debate in class
  about the readings suggested by the teacher. At the end of the debate the teacher will focus the attention on the essential knowledge of the Unit and the key questions of the Unit.
  The teacher will give students the opportunity to take tests in order to asses their understanding of a particular subject matter. Students are not obliged to take the tests.

• Attending students:
  The examination will consist in a 15 minutes dialogue with the teacher about two
  different units of the course. Students will be asked to show their knowledge of the contents of the lectures and the readings suggested.
  In the case a student successfully took the tests proposed by the teacher, the teacher will consider the tests for the final evaluation.
  
  Non-attending students:
  The examination will consist in a 15 minutes dialogue with the teacher about three different topics concerning respectively the method of comparative law, the common law tradition and the civil law tradition.
  All the students will be asked to give their opinion on some legal questions about the course program, and to sustain their opinion with legal arguments.

English

English