The course aims to provide students with a solid grounding in European legal history and the methodological tools necessary to identify patterns of continuity and rupture from the medieval period through to the modern and contemporary ages. By engaging with legal and historiographical sources, students will learn to critically analyze legal phenomena within their specific historical contexts and to assess their variations across different temporalities and geographies. This involves examining the political, social, and economic factors that underpin the formation of legal sources - be they legislative, jurisprudential, contractual, or doctrinal. By developing a refined understanding of these dynamics, students will strengthen their analytical and linguistic competencies, essential for both academic inquiry and professional practice.

The course introduces students to the key themes and methodological approaches in European legal history over the longue durée, tracing the interrelation among the multiple components of legal culture: legal discourse, legislation, judicial systems, and legal practices. Applying knowledge and understanding: By the end of the course, students will be able to: - Analyse legal phenomena from a historical-legal point of view; - Apply a comparative approach to legal history; - Master conceptual tools to better interpret contemporary legal trends and transformations (global and transnational law, legal pluralism etc.) ; - Communicate complex ideas and engage in critical discussion, utilising the appropriate terminology of legal history and culture; - Evaluate the historical roots of legal issues to understand how and why they continue to mark contemporary societies.

Opening with the foundation of medieval universities, particular emphasis is placed on the Roman law textual tradition and the formation of the ius commune, the divergence between civil law and common law systems and the multiple trajectories of early modern legal scholarship. The course further examines the intellectual roots of legal modernity, the nineteenth century alternative between code and system, and the emergence of legal specialisms around the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout, it addresses the role of jurists and intellectual and institutional actors, the circulation of legal knowledge across national borders, and the migration of legal concepts across time and space.

Attending students are expected to study selected sections of Antonio Padoa-Schioppa’s A History of Law in Europe(Cambridge University Press, 2017), along with two additional readings chosen from those discussed in class. Alternatively, they may replace the handbook entirely with a customized set of agreed-upon readings. Non-attending students, however, must study the handbook in its entirety.

The course adopts a teaching method that emphasizes student participation and the creation of structured moments of discussion, with the aim of fostering autonomy in theoretical reasoning and improving oral communication skills. The topics will be addressed through selected texts—legal sources and historiographical literature—indicated by the professor, and developed through students’ interpretative contributions. Traditional lectures will be integrated with interdisciplinary seminar sessions.

For attending students: active engagement in lectures and discussions and a final oral examination assessing comprehension of course contents, acquisition of technical legal vocabulary, and the ability to critically interpret sources in legal history. For not attending students: oral examination evaluating understanding of course materials and the capacity to critically engage with legal-historical concepts. The following evaluation criteria will be taken into account to assign the final grade, expressed in thirtieths: - knowledge and understanding of the notions and concepts of the matter and ability to use them to build up a basic legal discusssion (75%); appropriate use of English as means of communication and legal vocabulary, ability to analyze and evaluate relevant sources and acquisition of the study method (25%).

The topic must be related to the themes addressed in the course or otherwise agreed upon with the professor.