History of the Legal Professions

The course aims to provide students critical tools in order to understand the historical development of European legal profession, finding continuities and discontinuities between past and present.
The learning objective of the course, therefore, is to illustrate the dynamics leading to the discipline of legal profession nowadays, especially focusing on the organization and the rules of legal profession from the 12th to the 20th century.

At the end of the course, students will have to demonstrate
- to know the notions underlying the development of legal profession from the Middle Ages to modern period (Knowledge and understanding)
- the ability to reflect upon the distinctive features of legal profession in different historical contexts (Applying knowledge and understanding)
- critical awareness of the role of lawyers in the evolution of European law and on the different matters related to legal profession in historical perspective, through optional written exercises (Making Judgements).
- to write and to speak about the concepts learned during the course, with appropriate language and methodical precision (Communication skills).
- to understand the relationship between advocacy and judiciary, on the one hand, and politics and society, on the other hand, and also a strong capacity for comparing the past and present (Learning skills)