Instructional goals
The study course aims to complete the student's training in the Civil Procedural Law matters, with a view to his / her insertion in the professional field, taking into account the centrality of the subject itself in many of the job opportunities offered by the degree course.
Prerequisites
The attendance of the course implies the prior and adequate knowledge of Civil law and Constitutional Law.
Intended learning outcomes
1) Knowledge and understanding
The student will be provided with the necessary skills on general principles of the proceedings, ordinary cognition proceedings and appeals; enforcement procedure; special and summary procedures; means for alternative dispute resolution, with particular attention to mediation, arbitration and assisted negotiation.
The knowledge will be acquired through frontal teaching, analysis of case-law, testimonials, seminar activities.
The knowledge will be verified through the frequency of seminar activities and the oral exam to be held at the end of the course.
2) Applying Knowledge and Understanding
The student will be able to understand the role of judge and lawyer in Italy and in Europe. In this way, the interdisciplinary knowdledge necessary for students who are interested in working professionally in the fields of the classic forensic professions (Lawyers, Judges, Notaries) and consultancy activities in the private sector may be acquired.
The knowledge will be acquired through frontal teaching, analysis of case-law, testimonials, seminar activities.
The skills will be verified through the analysis of practical cases and the oral exam to be held at the end of the course.
Furthermore, the presence of multimedia content available on the platforms (videos, slides, tutorials, forums, etc.) will give the possibility of creating a permanent interaction between the students and the Professor.
3) Making judgements
The student, with the help of the advice given by the Professor and his collaborators during the lessons, will be able to analyze the normative sources and the relevant guidelines in doctrine and case-law, and to independently evaluate these guidelines, making his/her own critical judgment. He/She will also be able to apply the rules studied to specific cases, identifying the legal issues underlying the practical cases analyzed.
The skills are achieved through the collection and processing of all information on regulatory innovations, case-law and Scholar’s trends, as well as through a comparative approach.
The skills will be verified during the seminar activities, in the interaction with the Professor and through the oral exam to be held at the end of the course.
4) Communication Skills
At the end of the course, the student will be able to command, with adequate terminological precision, the technical-legal lexicon proper to Civil Procedural Law. By participating in the various course activities – lessons with classroom discussions, oral exams, seminar activities – the student will learn to practice the communication skills acquired in different contexts, adapting the lexicon to the reference interlocutor, thus acquiring additional skills rhetoric and argumentative, needed for the professional career.
Communication skills are acquired through the reading of normative texts, the attendance of seminar activities and the analysis of case-law.
The skills will be verified during the seminar activities, in the interaction with the Professor and through the oral exam to be held at the end of the course.
5) Learning skills
The technical-legal knowledge acquired during the study course will allow the student to understand and interpret autonomously the regulatory, doctrinal and case-law innovation related to Civil Procedural Law. The student will develop a solid knowledge of the fundamental aspects of the subject that will allow him to continue studying the issues dealt with independently, and to undertake the various post-graduate professional training studies.
These skills are acquired mainly through the attendance of seminar activities and the preparation of the oral exam.
Course Contents
The course will focus on the civil procedure subject and in particular on these topics: general principles, ordinary process of cognition, appeals, special proceedings (except the process for the fair repair of damage for the unreasonable length of the proceeding); means for alternative dispute resolution; enforcement.
Reference Books
Recommended textbooks:
C. Mandrioli – A. Carratta, Corso di diritto processuale civile, Editio Minor, Torino, voll. I-III.
G. Balena, Istituzioni di diritto processuale civile, Bari, voll. I-III.
B. Sassani, Lineamenti di diritto processuale civile, Milano.
P. Biavati, Argomenti di diritto processuale civile, Bologna.
For all the textbooks, the latest current edition is required. It is essential to read un update edition of the Code of Civil procedure and of the Civil Code.
Teaching Methods
-Front teaching
-Expert speech
-Seminar
-Cases Analysis
Assessment Method
ORAL EXAM
During the oral exam the student will be required to show that he/she knows and understands notions and principles of Procedural Civil Law and that he/she is able to apply them. The student is expected to be able to independently analyze sources and relevant theories of Procedural Civil Law and to use the appropriate technical and legal vocabulary, thus proving that he/she has acquired the study method and the learning ability for carrying on, also independently, further study of the matter.
The following evaluation criteria will be taken into account to assign the final grade, expressed in thirtieths: - knowledge and understanding of the notions and principles of the matter and ability to apply them to concrete cases (60%); - appropriate use of the technical legal vocabulary (25%); - ability to analyze and evaluate relevant sources and acquisition of the study method (15%).
Learning gaps concerning one or more notions or principles contained in one of more books of the Code of Civil Procedure will lead to an insufficient evaluation, even in presence of a basic knowledge of the matter.
Thesis assignment criteria
The assignment of the final paper for the dissertation requires a competence of the institutional elements of Civil Procedural Law.
Week 1
Introduction of the course.
1. Judicial protection of rights and the subject matter of the trial
1.1. Deciding questions and deciding issues part I.
1.2. Deciding questions and deciding issues part II.
Week 2
2. The action, the judicial demand, the defendant's defenses.
2.1. Actions and applications for declaratory declaration, constitutive and condemnation.
2.2. Self-determined and hetero-determined rights.
2.3. Mere Defenses, objections and counterclaims.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 3
3. Form and validity of procedural documents.
3.1. The procedural act.
3.2. The concept of form of the procedural act.
3.3. The nullity of procedural acts.
3.4. The figures of invalidity of the procedural act other than nullity.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 4
4.1. Jurisdiction and Competence.
4.1.1. Jurisdiction and the special recourse to the Court of cassation on jurisdictional issues.
4.1.2. The rules governoing venue and the special appeal to the Court.
4.2. The Party to the Process.
4.2.1. The capacity and legitimacy to bring proceedings.
4.2.2. The plurality of parties in the process.
4.3. The Defender, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judge's Assistants.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 5
5.1 The introductory phase of the process and the discussion.
5.1.1 The writ of summons and the response.
5.1.2. Preliminary Checks and handling of the Case.
5.2. The anomalous events of the trial.
5.2.1. Suspension, interruption and termination of the process.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 6
6. The proof.
6.1. Definitions and Classifications Part I.
6.2. Evidential reasoning.
6.3. Individual means of proof.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 7
7. The judge's decision.
7.1. Sentence, order and judge’s decree.
7.2. Focus: the grounds of the judgment.
7.3 The judgment of fact and judgment of right.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 8
8. The appeals.
8.1. The appeals in general.
8.1.1. Legal remedies and appeals in the strict sense.
8.1.2. Conditions of appeal.
8.1.3. Time limits for appeals.
8.1.4. Acquiescence to the tacit and expressed judgment.
8.1.5. The partial appeal and the progressive formation of the internal res judicata.
8.1.6. Cross appeals.
8.1.7. Litigation in the stages of appeal.
8.1.8. Inadmissibility and inadmissibility of appeals.
8.2. The appeal judgment.
8.2.1. The grounds and subject matter of the appeal.
8.2.2. The ius novorum on appeal.
8.2.3. The proceedings and the decisions in the appeal proceedings.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 9
9.1. Proceedings at the Court of cassation.
9.1.1. 9.1.1. Function of the judgment of cassation.
9.1.2. Grounds for appeal.
9.1.3. Acts: application, defence and cross-appeal.
9.1.4. The reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Cassation.
9.1.5. The proceedings in Cassation.
9.1.6. Decisions of the Court of Cassation.
9.1.7. Appeals against judgments of the Court of Cassation.
9.1.8. Proceedings on remand.
9.2. The ordinary revision.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 10
10. Res iudicata.
10.1. Res iudicata: definition, assumptions, ratio.
10.2. The formal and substantive judgment, internal and external, implicit and explicit, partial.
10.3. Limits of res iudicata.
10.4. Extraordinary relief from judgment.
10.4.1. The extraordinary revocation.
10.4.2. The third party’s objection.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 11
11. Special procedures.
11.1. The simplified procedure of cognition.
11.2. Special proceedings before the Justice of the Peace.
11.3. Special proceedings for labor disputes.
11.4. Special proceedings for uncontested claims.
11.5. Interim proceedings.
11.6. Representative litigation.
11.7. The special proceedings on persons, juveniles and families.
11.8. The chambers proceedings.
11.9. The arbitration.
Learning by doing: examination and discussion of a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Week 12
12. The enforcement procedure.
12.1. The procedure of expropriation.
12.2. Enforceable titles and warning.
12.3. Forced sale and assignment.
12.4. Distribution of proceeds.
12.5. Oppositions in enforcement proceedings: art. 615, 617 and 619 c.p.c.
12.6. The execution in specific form.
Guided self-assessment test: elaborated on the topics covered during the course.