SISTEMI GIURIDICI COMPARATI
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: ANTONIO LAS CASASCourse Structure
The course aims to illustrate the basic features of some modern legal systems in comparative perspective.
Special attention will be devoted to those systems belonging to the so-called "Western legal tradition" - and in particular to the comparison between civil law and common law systems - in order to describe their historical origins, current institutional and technical arrangements, mentality of lawyers and to highlight analogies and differences in the framework of a common function of the law as a factor of social order.
The final part of the course will focus on the comparison between the western tradition and other legal experiences, such as far East, islamic and indù systems, where regulation is traditionally described as relying on tools of social order that differ, under some respects, from the western concept of law.
Cases and materials of foreign law (usually taken from the "appendixes" to each chapter of the suggested textbook) will be employed in class to illustrate the topics studied.
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
Subject matter and functions of comparative law;
Taxonomy of legal systems: functions and examples of classifications;
Civil law systems: historical roots; codifications (French model and german models); sources of law, the idea of legal norm; the role of legal formants;
Common law: historical origins: King's courts and administration of justice; writs and forms of action; action on the case and development of the common law; Common Law and Equity; modern structure of English legal system; sources of law in English law: stare decisis, statute law; US system: Constitution, federal structure of the State, peculiarities of stare decisis.
Encounters of the Western legal tradition: Latin America; China; Japan; Islamic countries; India.
Textbook Information
1. V. Varano - V. Barsotti, La tradizione giuridica occidentale (Torino 2024), only the following parts:
cap. I (introduzione al diritto comparato);
cap. II (La tradizione di Civil law);
cap. III (La tradizione di Common law);
cap V (Incontri della tradizione giuridica occidentale).
Each chapter is followed by an "appendix", containing various materials useful for a better comprehension of the notions illustrated in the text. Those appendixes do not add further notions to the content of each chapter. They rather provide illustrations, examples, graphical descriptions, excerpts or tables of contents of legal texts, documents related to foreign law (e.g. the text of some "writs": procedural documents whose knowledge is essential for the comprehension of English law), short excerpts of scholarly writings on topics already covered in the book chapters, etc.
For those reasons, those "appendixes" are not included and counted within the pages that are to be "studied" in the strict sense. However, a basic knowledge of their content is recommended for a full comprehension of the topics illustrated within each chapter.
Those appendixes and their meaning and usefulness will be illustrated in class.
For the sake of clarity, as regards those documents that are longer and more complex (such as: excerpts from judicial decisions and scholarly writings), a deep and full knowledge of the notions expounded and of the legal reasoning employed does not constitute a necessary requirement to pass the exam and will not be included in the exams questions. However, a basic knowledge of the object of those documents (what they are about) and of the reason why they are mentioned (the issue - dealt with in the text of the chapter - they illustrate) is recommended for a full comprehension of each topic.
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincenzo Varano, Virginia Barsotti | La tradizione giuridica occidentale | Giappichelli | 2024 | 9791221106381 |
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oggetto e funzioni della comparazione giuridica | Varano-Barsotti, p. 1-46 |
| 2 | La sistemologia e la classificazione dei sistemi | Varano-Barsotti, p. 1-46 |
| 3 | Origini della tradizione di Civil law | Varano-Barsotti, p. 104-120 |
| 4 | Le codificazioni: il modello francese | Varano-Barsotti, p. 120-132 |
| 5 | Le codificazioni: i modelli germanici | Varano-Barsotti, p. 132-150 |
| 6 | Le fonti del diritto nella tradizione di civil law; l'idea di norma giuridica e il ruolo dei diversi formanti | Varano-Barsotti, p. 158-179 |
| 7 | I sistemi dell'Europa orientale. Modelli socialisti e sostrato romanistico | Varano-Barsotti, p. 181-200 |
| 8 | Il common law: origini e sistema dei writs | Varano-Barsotti, p. 248-261 |
| 9 | Action on the case e sviluppo del common law | Varano-Barsotti, p. 261-264 |
| 10 | L'Equity | Varano-Barsotti, p. 264-269 |
| 11 | L'assetto moderno del sistema inglese | Varano-Barsotti, p. 269-286 |
| 12 | Il precedente vincolante | Varano-Barsotti, p. 290-310 |
| 13 | Teoria classica del precedente e sviluppi successivi | Varano-Barsotti, p. 290-310 |
| 14 | Statute law | Varano-Barsotti, p. 290-310 |
| 15 | Il common law statunitense | Varano-Barsotti, p. 311-347 |
| 16 | La struttura federale dello stato e il common law (il problema del federal common law) | Varano-Barsotti, p. 311-347 |
| 17 | Fattori di unificazione del diritto degli Stati Uniti (Restatements, codes, legal education) | Varano-Barsotti, p. 311-347 |
| 18 | Incontri della tradizione occidentale: l'incontro con l'America latina | Varano-Barsotti, p. 505-515 |
| 19 | L'incontro con la Cina | Varano-Barsotti, p. 519-538 |
| 20 | L'incontro con il Giappone | Varano-Barsotti, p. 540-550 |
| 21 | L'incontro con i Paesi islamici | Varano-Barsotti, p. 552-571 |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Oral exam
Final mark will depend on the assessment of following aspects:
- pertinence of answers
- quality and comprehension of the contents
- ability to connect different topics
- ability to give examples
- ability to empoy appropriate technical terms
- ability to properly present concepts and topics
- familiarity with legal sources