HISTORY OF LAW (20608)

2014-2015

• Year: 1st
• Term: 2nd
• Number of ECTS credits: 6
• Student hours: 150

Syllabus

This course, whose aims and methodology are markedly innovative, leads students to reflect on the legal and institutional structures of human societies starting from a comparative analysis over time - a diachronic perspective - and through various world civilisations.

Unlike similar courses in the past, History of Law does not claim to cover all possible areas of the subject. It is organised into ten topics, which are conceived as axes of analysis for specific problems and illustrated with paradigmatic cases. Its objective is to awaken an awareness of historicity in law students, ergo the relativity and contingency of the law in any community.

The constant and increasing interaction between peoples and cultures in a global framework makes us aware of identity/otherness binomials, of the contrast between markedly individualistic systems and others which are structured into supra-personal cells, of the interaction of religions and/or certain labels within the strictly legal (if this is conceivable)sphere, etc.

As it is a basic first-year course, History of Law willingly accepts a certain preparatory role in the education of UPF law undergraduates, furnishing them with chronological references, conceptual pillars, and terminological background, helping them to improve their reading comprehension and to identify and analyse legal sources, etc.

Topic 1. A comparative perspective: law throughout the history of the major civilisations (European, African, Pre-Colombian, Hindu, Chinese, Islamic systems, etc.).

Topic 2. Rome: from city-state to vast bipartite empire (West and East).

Topic 3. The Germanic peoples: a break with Rome or an adaptation and projection of their background?

Topic 4. The expansion of Islam and its effects on Europe.

Topic 5. The age of theocentrism and feudalism: the early Middle Ages and private vindicatory justice.

Topic 6. A law for a Christian Europe: ius commune and the late Middle Ages.

Topic 7. Humanism and its effects: the reinforcing of state structures and religious fracture in Europe.

Topic 8. The early Modern Age (c. XVI-XVII): the cases of Castile and France vis-a-vis those of Catalonia and England.

Topic 9. Absolutism, the Enlightenment and liberal revolutions (c. XVIII): the seeds of modern times.

Topic 10. Liberalism and democratic projects. New rules for the political and social game: constitutionalism and codification. Their shortcomings.