History of Medieval and Modern Law

The course aims to provide a broad overview of the history of legal sources in the centuries-long history of continental Europe, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Emphasis is placed on the links between legal thought, legislation and practice; between the evolution of institutions and methods of law production; between legal history and political and economic history, social history and the history of ideas. The training and role of lawyers are outlined, as is the relevance of the scientific method and the teaching of law. Special attention is given to the European dimension of the transition from legal particularism to modern codes in the 18th and 19th centuries. The student of law is thus provided with cultural tools that are indispensable for perceiving and understanding today's legal complexity, characteristic of a globalised world.
General Part:
- Introduction
- The early Middle Ages. The law of the Germanic kingdoms
- The Glossators and the new legal science
- University: students and teachers. Legal professions
- Canon Law (11th-14th centuries)
- The Commentators. Ius commune and ius proprium
- The transition to the early modern period
- Early modern legal doctrine and the legal profession
- Court decisions
- The plurality of legal orders and legal sources
- Legal Humanism
- Natural Law
- The Enlightenment and the Law
- 18th century reforms in Europe
- French Revolution and the French Civil Code of 1804
- The Napoleonic Era
- The Codifications
- Law during Restoration
- The Historical School and German Legal Science

Special Part:
- Introduction
- Mediaeval merchants: laws and customs
- The church and the merchants
- Early modern legal doctrine and commercial law
- 18th century commercial law
- The French commercial code (1807)
- Commercial codification in 19th century Italy
- English commercial law
- Commercial law and Legal Comparison
- Italian civil and commercial post-unitarian codes

The History of Medieval and Modern Law course is aimed at outlining the evolution of European law between the Middle Ages and the contemporary age, with particular regard to the invention and elaboration of the instruments of governance, justice, legality, the protection of rights individual and social.
The 'historical' nature of the law requires, in fact, to refine critical and logical tools that make it possible to identify, in individual eras and in the various institutional, political, economic and social contexts, the conflicting interests and the criteria used to balance them by legislators , professors, lawyers, judges and 'intellectuals' who, from time to time, have had a different weight and role in the functioning of domestic and international institutions.
The in-depth study of the various levels of legal practice and culture between the past and the present is essential to equip the student with interpretative skills both of the legal phenomenon in its unity and complexity, and of the individual situations that must also be analyzed with regard to the facts and legal cases, as well as to acquire full awareness of the theoretical and practical implications of each institute, in relation to the various branches of law, which only an in-depth study, even in a diachronic sense, can ensure.

Analytical program
- From late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, 5th-11th Century: late antiquity law, Christianity, the law of the Germanic kingdoms, the Carolingian and feudal age, the reform of the Church.
- The Middle Ages, XII-XV Centuries: public institutions and sources of law in the formation of municipal and monarchical governments; civil law and canon law schools; jurisprudentiality of the common law; juridical practice and school; the formation of the common law.
- The modern age, XVI-XVIII Centuries: the characteristics of the modern state between contractualism and absolutism; the 'humanistic' revolution of legal culture; legal class; large courts; the second between domestic and international public law; the theories of the social contract and natural law.
- The age of reforms, XVIII-XIX Centuries: the legal Enlightenment; the reforms of enlightened absolutism; revolutions and law.
- Legal culture, codification and profiles of justice in the 19th Century.

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 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.