History of Medieval and Modern Law

The course aims to describe the evolution of European law from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a special focus on the invention and development of the means used in that time span to govern, administer justice, determine legality, and defend individual and social rights. The 'historical' nature of law requires those who study it to sharpen their critical and logical thinking skills. In this way, they can first identify the conflicting interests in play at any given time in history, while taking into account the different institutional, economic and social contexts, and then identify the criteria chosen to balance those conflicting interests. Over the course of history, such criteria has been determined by legislators, professors, lawyers and judges, who have all held varying weights and roles in the functioning of domestic and international institutions. Furthermore, a historical perspective on legal studies is of fundamental importance to understanding how contemporary systems have come to be; indeed, teaching such a perspective can highlight both the rifts and the continuity in the mutualistic relationship between sources of laws and institutions.
-From late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, 5th-11th centuries: the age of the Germanic kingdoms, feudalism
-The age of classical jus commune, 12th-15th centuries: public institutions; the glossators; classical canon law; the commentators; legal praxis and school; local law and particular law; the system of sources; the formation of common law.
-The age of absolutism, 16th-18th centuries: constitutional monarchy and types of legal norms; the legal profession and institutions; equity and common law; the 'scuola culta'; practicing jurists; Second Scholasticism; natural law; crisis in the jus commune.
-The age of reforms, 18th-19th centuries: law during the Enlightenment; eighteenth-century reforms; law and the French Revolution.
The course of History of Medieval and Modern Law 12 CFU includes a module (21 hours - 3 CFU) which will be held by Prof. Angela Santangelo ([email protected]), aiming at outlining the historical evolution of canon law from the origins of the Church to the 19th century. The teaching focuses on the fundamental aspects of the history of canon law from the early Middle Ages to the nineteenth-century codifications, with particular regard to the sources of production of law, the role of canonical doctrine in the definition of canonical juridical institutes and the relationship between Church and State since late antiquity to modern age of codifications.
1. Canon law in the late antiquity
2. Monasticism
3. The Church from the Carolingian age to the Gregorian reform
4. Gratian's Decretum and decretistic science
5. The first collections of decretals and the thirteenth-century decretalistic doctrine
6. Law and canonistic science in the 14th-15th centuries
7. The Roman-canonical process and ecclesiastical judicial institutions
8. The Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent
9. Canon law between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
10. The law of the Church from the French Revolution to the age of codes
11. Canonical marriage

Title of the course: Rulers and ruled: the long journey from subjects to citizens
Middle Ages
Modern Age: from the end of the Middle Age to French Revolution
Contemporary Age: the Age of Codification

The course aims to describe the evolution of European law from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a special focus on the invention and development of the means used in that time span to govern, administer justice, determine legality, and defend individual and social rights. The 'historical' nature of law requires those who study it to sharpen their critical and logical thinking skills. In this way, they can first identify the conflicting interests in play at any given time in history, while taking into account the different institutional, economic and social contexts, and then identify the criteria chosen to balance those conflicting interests. Over the course of history, such criteria has been determined by legislators, professors, lawyers and judges, who have all held varying weights and roles in the functioning of domestic and international institutions. Furthermore, a historical perspective on legal studies is of fundamental importance to understanding how contemporary systems have come to be; indeed, teaching such a perspective can highlight both the rifts and the continuity in the mutualistic relationship between sources of laws and institutions.
-From late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, 5th-11th centuries: the age of the Germanic kingdoms, feudalism
-The age of classical jus commune, 12th-15th centuries: public institutions; the glossators; classical canon law; the commentators; legal praxis and school; local law and particular law; the system of sources; the formation of common law.
-The age of absolutism, 16th-18th centuries: constitutional monarchy and types of legal norms; the legal profession and institutions; equity and common law; the 'scuola culta'; practicing jurists; Second Scholasticism; natural law; crisis in the jus commune.
-The age of reforms, 18th-19th centuries: law during the Enlightenment; eighteenth-century reforms; law and the French Revolution.
The course of History of Medieval and Modern Law includes a module (21 hours) which will be held by Prof. Raffaella Bianchi Riva, aiming at focusing, in connection with the themes of the course, the role of judges and lawyers in the evolution of European law between the 12th and 19th century. On this perspective, particular attention will be paid to the changing relationship between legislation, doctrine and practice from the Middle Ages to the modern age, as well as to the reciprocal influences between the legal profession, on the one hand, and politics and society, on the other.

The course aims to describe the evolution of European law from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a special focus on the invention and development of the means used in that time span to govern, administer justice, determine legality, and defend individual and social rights. The 'historical' nature of law requires those who study it to sharpen their critical and logical thinking skills. In this way, they can first identify the conflicting interests in play at any given time in history, while taking into account the different institutional, economic and social contexts, and then identify the criteria chosen to balance those conflicting interests. Over the course of history, such criteria has been determined by legislators, professors, lawyers and judges, who have all held varying weights and roles in the functioning of domestic and international institutions. Furthermore, a historical perspective on legal studies is of fundamental importance to understanding how contemporary systems have come to be; indeed, teaching such a perspective can highlight both the rifts and the continuity in the mutualistic relationship between sources of laws and institutions.
Other learning objectives include refining students' comparative analysis skills, as well as encouraging students to find connections between legal history and political history, social history and the history of ideas. An additional objective is to analyze some public- and private-law institutions. Only by examining the different aspects of legal culture and practice throughout history, including the present day, can students successfully acquire the interpretive skills needed to understand law, both in its entirety and in isolated situations that must be evaluated by looking at the facts on a case by case basis.

Course summary
-Roots in the early Middle Ages. The age of the Germanic kingdoms, feudalism: overview.
-The age of classical jus commune, 12th-15th centuries: public institutions; the glossators; classical canon law; the commentators; legal praxis and school; local law and particular law; the system of sources; the formation of common law.
-The age of absolutism, 16th-18th centuries: constitutional monarchy and types of legal norms; the legal profession and institutions; equity and common law; the 'scuola culta'; practicing jurists; Second Scholasticism; natural law; crisis in the jus commune.
-The age of reforms, 18th-19th centuries: law during the Enlightenment; eighteenth-century reforms; law and the French Revolution.