History of Medieval and Modern Law

A.Y. 2024/2025
12
Max ECTS
84
Overall hours
SSD
IUS/19
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide the students with the basic critical tools enabling them to know the historical development of European law system, both contextualizing legal instruments and institutions within their evolutionary process and finding continuities and discontinuities between past and present. The learning objective of the course, therefore, is to illustrate the dynamics leading to the existing legal instruments and proceedings, as well as their possible declination in the fields of politics, economy, and culture, and also their legacy to contemporary law and institutions. To this end, focus will be on legislators and jurists approaches, especially through the technical examination of legal argumentation and reasoning, as well as the analysis of case studies.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students will have to demonstrate - Knowledge and understanding: to know and to understand the basic notions underlying the development of European law, and to be able to reflect upon the distinctive features of Western legal culture. - Applying knowledge and understanding: the ability to understand the various techniques of legal reasoning, as well as the ability to collect, analyze and select data based on context. - Making Judgements: critical awareness, management skills, flexibility, and a capacity for research into the many elements that make up the historical side of law as it relates to the foundations of Western legal knowledge, through optional written exercises. - Communication skills: to write and to speak about the concepts learned during the course, utilizing coherent argumentation, methodical precision and correct language. - Learning skills: to understand the relationship between institutions, society and individuals, and also to demonstrate a strong capacity for analysis and reflection in terms of legal issues, both past and present.
Single course

This course can be attended as a single course.

Course syllabus and organization

Surname A-C

Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
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. It outlines the training and role of lawyers and the importance of legal method and the teaching of law. Emphasis is placed on the links between legal thought, legislation and practice; between the evolution of institutions and law-making processes; between legal history and political and economic history, social history and the history of ideas. Special attention is given to the European dimension of the transition from legal particularism to modern codification in the 18th and 19th centuries, and to the development of legislation and legal knowledge in the 19th and 20th 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:
- The early Middle Ages. The law of the Germanic kingdoms
- The Glossators and the new legal science
- University: students and teachers
- Canon Law (11th-14th centuries)
- The Commentators. Ius commune and ius proprium
- English Common Law: The Formative Age
- Early modern Period. Legal Humanism
- Legal doctrine and the Legal Profession
- The modern state. Local Laws and Royal Legislation
- Court decisions
- The plurality of legal orders and legal sources
- Natural Law
- English Law (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)
- Jurists of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
- The Enlightenment and the Law
- The Reforms
- The French Revolution and the Law
- The Napoleonic Era. The French Civil Code of 1804
- The Codifications
- Law during the Restoration
- The Historical School and German Legal Science
- Late Nineteenth-Century Codes and Laws

Special Part:
- The History of Commercial Law
- Mediaeval merchants. Law and Custom. The Church and the merchants
- Early modern legal doctrine and Case Law
- The French Commercial Code (1807)
- Commercial Law Codification in 19th century Italy
- English Commercial Law
- German Commercial Laws
- Legislative Unification in Italy
- Legal Science between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- The Great War and the Law
- Law and legislation between the two World Wars
- The Italian Civil Code of 1942
Prerequisites for admission
There are no specific requirements different from those requested for the admission to the Law School.
Teaching methods
Attendance is strongly recommended.
The teaching is delivered through frontal lectures. In class, relevant sources are analyzed and discussed.
Relevant juridical sources and teaching materials are uploaded to the ARIEL platform.
Teaching Resources
Textbook for attending and non-attending students: A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal medioevo all'età contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016, second edition. NB: the specific parts of the textbook to be studied will be referenced on the ARIEL platform.

2) A. Monti, Per una storia del diritto commerciale contemporaneo, Pisa, Pacini, Latest edition. NB: the specific parts of the textbook to be studied will be referenced on the ARIEL platform.

For attending students, the reference paragraphs of the textbook will be better specified in class. Sources and teaching materials illustrated in class will be uploaded to the ARIEL platform.
Students who move from the three-year degree course to the five-year course have to complete the program as follows:
- integration of 3 credits, students have to study A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, Il Mulino 2016, second edition, pp. 411-587
- integration of 6 credits, students have to study A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, Il Mulino 2016, second edition, pp. 15-349 e pp. 359-415.
Students who move from other Law Schools are invited to promptly get in touch with the professor in order to arrange an integration for exam preparation.
Assessment methods and Criteria
- Method: oral exam
- Type of examination: oral exam
- Evaluation criteria: capacity to demonstrate and elaborate knowledge; quality of exposition, efficacy, clarity; capacity for critical reflection
- Type of evaluation method: mark in 30s
The format of the exam for students with disabilities should be arranged in advance with the professor, as well as the relevant office.
IUS/19 - HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW - University credits: 12
Lessons: 84 hours
Shifts:

Surname D-L

Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
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.
Prerequisites for admission
Being a first year exam, there are no specific prerequisites different from those required for access to the degree course.
Teaching methods
Class attendance is strongly recommended, although not mandatory.
Teachers will use frontal lessons.
The teaching makes use of teaching material available on the ARIEL platform.
Teaching Resources
The exam will take place on the following textbook:
- A. Padoa Schioppa, History of law in Europe. From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016, second edition pp. 17-494.
For attending students, the parts of the textbook subject to specific study will be indicated during the lessons; slides will also be projected (available on the Ariel website) which will accompany the study of the textbook.
For students who pass from the three-year period to the five-year period, an integration of the program is required as specified below:
- for students who have taken the 9 credits exam (History of medieval and modern law) during the three-year course:
A. Padoa Schioppa, History of law in Europe. From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age, Il Mulino 2016, second expanded and corrected edition, pp. 411-587 (integration of 3 credits)
- for students who have taken the 6-credit exam (History of Contemporary Law) during the three-year course:
A. Padoa Schioppa, History of law in Europe. From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age, Il Mulino 2016, second expanded and corrected edition, pp. 15-427 (integration of 6 credits).
For students from other Faculties, integration must be agreed with the teacher according to the program carried out at the Faculty of origin.
Assessment methods and Criteria
- Mode: oral exam
- Type of test: oral question
- Evaluation parameters: correctness of the contents, clarity of exposition, argumentative effectiveness, capacity for critical analysis and re-elaboration.
- Type of evaluation used: mark out of thirty
The exam methods for students with disabilities and/or with DSA must be agreed with the teacher, in agreement with the competent office.
IUS/19 - HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW - University credits: 12
Lessons: 84 hours
Shifts:
Turno
Professor: Salvi Stefania Tatiana

Surname M-Q

Lesson period
Second semester
The didactic activity will take place in the modalities that will be indicated in the weeks before the beginning of the lessons.
Course syllabus
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.
Prerequisites for admission
There are no specific requirements different from those requested for the admission to the Law School.
Teaching methods
Attendance to classes is strongly recommended although not compulsory.
The teaching is delivered through frontal lectures.
The teaching is also based on didactic material provided on Ariel.
Teaching Resources
The exam will take place on one of the following textbooks of your choice :
- A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal medioevo all'età contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016, seconda edizione pp. 17-494.
- G.S. Pene Vidari, Storia del diritto in età medievale e moderna, Torino, Giappichelli, 2023 (pp. 1-312) + Elementi di storia del diritto europeo. L'età contemporanea Torino, Giappichelli, 2023 (pp. 150), or the single economic kit with the code ISBN 9791221154917.
For attending students, texts will be made available on the Ariel website on the topics of particular attention during the course.
Students who move from the three-year degree course to the five-year course have to complete the program as follows:
- integration of 3 credits, students have to study A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, Il Mulino 2016, second edition, pp. 411-587
- integration of 6 credits, students have to study A. Padoa Schioppa, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, Il Mulino 2016, second edition, pp. 15-349 e pp. 359-415.
Students who move from other Law Schools are invited to promptly get in touch with the professor in order to arrange an integration for exam preparation.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Method: oral exam
- Type of examination: oral interrogation
- Evaluation criteria: capacity to demonstrate and elaborate knowledge; quality of exposition, efficacy, clarity; capacity for critical reflection
- Type of evaluation method: mark in 30s
- The format of the exam for students with disabilities should be arranged in advance with the professor, as well as the relevant office.
IUS/19 - HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW - University credits: 12
Lessons: 84 hours
Shifts:
Turno
Professor: Santangelo Angela Maria

Surname R-Z

Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
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.
Prerequisites for admission
There are no specific requirements different from those requested for the admission to the Law School.
Teaching methods
Attendance to classes is strongly recommended although not compulsory.
The teaching is delivered through frontal lectures,
compatibly with the health situation.
The teaching is also based on didactic material provided on Ariel.
Individual written exercises are envisaged.
Teaching Resources
Choose between these:

A) A. PADOA SCHIOPPA, Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal medioevo all'età contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016, second edition, pp. 17-494.
B) G.S. PENE VIDARI, Storia del diritto in età medievale e moderna, Torino, Giappichelli, 2023 (pp. 312) + Elementi di storia del diritto europeo. L'età contemporanea Torino, Giappichelli, 2023 (pp. 1-87) (code ISBN 9791221154917)
Assessment methods and Criteria
- Method: oral exam
- Type of examination: oral interrogation
- Evaluation criteria: capacity to demonstrate and elaborate knowledge; quality of exposition, efficacy, clarity; capacity for critical reflection
- Type of evaluation method: mark in 30s
The format of the exam for students with disabilities should be arranged in advance with the professor, as well as the relevant office.
IUS/19 - HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW - University credits: 12
Lessons: 84 hours
Shifts:
Turno
Professor: Parini Sara Veronica
Professor(s)
Reception:
By appointment ([email protected])
Department of Private Law and Legal History, office 1-1120
Reception:
Monday 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
in department or on line Teams 365
Reception:
appointment by mail
Dipartimento di Diritto privato e Storia del diritto/Piattaforma Microsoft Teams