Actualités et agenda
Nos formations
Présentation
The course will be conducted in a seminar format, having students taking part of the responsibility for leading the common discussion. Prior to each lecture, students are requested to read the materials identified at the beginning of the course and available on-line (or via Dropbox).During lectures, students are expected to comment onthe texts that they were requested to read,encouraging critical thinking, active participation and thought-provoking exchanges in class.
The course will provide students with the opportunities to:
1.Better appreciate how cultural, social and historical factors dialogue and interrelate with the development of legal structures, doctrines,and substantive rules;
2.Approach the study of some of the major legal traditions of the world and their contemporary relevance;
3.Acquire tools for understanding the impact of globalization on legal and political structures;
4.Enhance argumentative and legal analysis skills via class discussion and exchange.
The course introduces and analyzes comparative law in a global perspective, providing students with an overview of the most important legal traditions of the world.The first part of the course focuses on the meaning of comparative law and introduces basic concepts, such as those of legal traditions, legal transplants and legal pluralism, considering legal globalization as one of the most important developments for contemporary legal studies.The second part deals with the core of the Western legal traditions analyzing the Commonlaw & Civil law archetypical divide.It also analyses mixed legal systems, their distinctive traits and growing importance for comparative legal studies. The meaning of democracy and human rights as Western or universal values is investigated as well in this part of the course.The third cycle broadens the course’s comparative spectrum to some of the most important non-Western/non-European legal traditions (Sub-Saharan, East-Asian,Hindu,Talmudic,and Islamic)and questions the possible reconciliation of legal diversity on a global scale.
Course Syllabus
Part I The Meaning of Comparative Law in the Contemporary Legal “Brave New World”
• I Session What Comparative Law Is and Is Not - Mathias Reimann, Comparative Law and Neighboring Disciplines, in Bussani and Mattei, 13-34
• II Session Comparative Law and Legal Pluralism - S.E. Merry, Legal Pluralism, 22 L. & Soc. Rev. 869-879, esp. 889-890 (1988) (skim) - Mauro Bussani, Comparative Law Beyond the Trap of Western Positivism, in Tong-Io Cheng and Salvatore Mancuso (eds.), New Frontiers of Comparative Law, Lexisnexis, 2013, 1-9 - B. D. Richman, How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York, 31 L. & Soc. Inq. 383–420 (2006)
• III Session Comparative Law and Legal Globalization - Günther Frankenberg, Constitutional Transfer: The IKEA Theory Revisited: 8 Int’l J. Con. L. 563-579 (2010) - Wade Channell, Lessons Not Learned: Problems with Western Aid for Law Reform in Post-communist Countries, Carnegie Papers, (2005) - V. Volpe, Drafting Counter-majoritarian Democracy. The Venice Commission’s Constitutional Assistance, in “Heidelberg Journal of International Law”, Vol. 76, No. 4, 2016, pp. 811 – 843. 4
II Part :Western Legal Traditions
• IV Session The Civil Law Tradition - H. Patrick Glenn, A Civil Law Tradition: The centrality of the Person, Ch. 5, in H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, OUP, 2014 - The Structure of the Legal Profession (excerpts the Education of Civil lawyers Damaska - The Legal Profession vs the Legal Professions – Merryman), pp. 53 – 63
• V Session The Common Law Tradition and Mixed Jurisdiction - H. Patrick Glenn, A Common Law Tradition: The ethic of Adjudication, Ch. 7, in H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, OUP, 2014 - William Tetley, Mixed Jurisdictions: common law vs civil law (codified and uncodified), Rev. dr. unif. 1999 – 3, pp. 591 – 618
• VI Session Human Rights: Western or Universal legal values? - Sen, Human Rights and Asian Values, Sixteenth Morgenthau Memorial Lecture on Ethics & Foreign Policy, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (1997), 7-31 - R. Kapur, Human Rights in the 21st Century: Take a Walk on the Dark Side, in Sidney Law Review, 2006, pp. 665 – 687, available at http://sydney.edu.au/law/slr/slr28_4/Kapur.pdf
• VII Session – (ZOOM) Democracy: Western or Universal legal value? - Sabino Cassese, Global Standards for National Democracies, Inaugural Lecture, EUI, Academic year 2010-2011 - M. Bussani, Democracy and the Western Legal Tradition, in M. Bussani and U. Mattei (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law, CUP: Cambridge, 2012, 384- 396 - CLASS DEBATE: Universality YES or NOT? (50/50) 5
Part III:Comparative Law Across Legal Traditions
• VIII Session The Chthonic and African (Sub-Saharan
Modalités
Grades will be based on:
- ClassParticipation+ Class Debate(up to20%)Class participationisareally meaningful part of the final grade.Students are expected tobe familiar withthe readings and be prepared foreach class.
During Session VIIthe class will be divided in two groups and each student will be requested to argue in favor/against the thesis of the universality of democracy/human right...butregardless to her/his personal opinion about itJThe idea is to engage in a meaningful classdebateon one of the core topics of the course, while learning to the appreciate the reasons of “the others”.
- Oral exam (80%-100%)
Ressources
<ul> <li>Mauro Bussani and Ugo Mattei,The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law, CUP2012(Bussaniand Mattei)</li> <li>H. Patrick Glenn,Legal Traditions of the World, OUP, 2014</li> </ul> || All readings will be available through DropboxReading assignments will be drawn from the syllabus below. Assignments are listed by session. In principle, the order by whichmaterials are listed corresponds to the order they will be discussed during class hours.