Unit Major world legal systems
- Course
- International relations
- Study-unit Code
- A001449
- Curriculum
- Cooperazione internazionale e governance globale
- Teacher
- Lyda Favali
- Teachers
-
- Lyda Favali
- Hours
- 52 ore - Lyda Favali
- CFU
- 8
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Sector
- IUS/02
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- English
- Contents
- This course offers an introduction to comparative law and to the main legal traditions of the world. In a world where legal systems of different origins are constantly in contact, the ability to recognise the logic of systems other than one's own is a valuable skill for students of International Relations: comparative law provides the categories needed to find one's bearings among systems that, while often regulating the same problems, do so with different instruments, sources, and mindsets.
A first part is devoted to the objectives and methods of comparative law and to legal pluralism as a key for studying different legal systems. The lectures then examine the salient features of the following legal traditions:
• Civil Law (European continental law);
• Common Law (Anglo/American law);
• Post-Socialist legal tradition (bringing together all the countries which were part of the USSR and/or adopted socialism at the political level);
• Islamic legal tradition and the law of Islamic countries;
• "Pluralist" legal family (African law and other systems based on traditional law).
For each tradition, the course examines its historical origins, its sources, its main legal actors, and its evolution up to the present day, underlining the borrowings from other systems as well as the phenomena of convergence and divergence fostered by globalisation. The analysis rests on an underlying principle: the equal dignity of each tradition, avoiding taking any single model as the measure of all the others.
The course thus provides the basic tools to compare the legal rules adopted by different countries at a regional and transnational level, and to recognise the tradition to which a given legal system can be traced. - Reference texts
- Mathias Siems, Comparative Law, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2022
- Educational objectives
- This course represents the main opportunity in the two-year programme to learn the fundamentals of comparative private law and the theory of legal systems, which are so crucial in International Relations. It provides an overview of the main legal traditions of the world and summarises their main features. Its principal aim is to give students the tools to make an effective comparison between different legal traditions and to explore the impact of global and regional integration processes upon them.
The main knowledge acquired will concern the underlying features of the different legal traditions (families) and of the rules of the countries belonging to them, the main changes that have occurred within each family throughout history — with particular attention to recent developments and to the impact of increasing global and regional integration — and the main differences and similarities between the various traditions.
In terms of skills, that is, the ability to apply what has been learnt, students will be able to identify and describe the salient features of the different legal families and their differences and similarities, to recognise which tradition a given legal system can be traced to and to grasp its main features at once, and to identify the synergies existing between the different traditions. - Prerequisites
- There are no prerequisites. As the course is taught in English, knowledge of the language at least at an intermediate level is required, so that students can follow and take an active part in the lectures. This applies to both attending and non-attending students.
- Teaching methods
- Classroom lectures on all course topics, supported by multimedia tools where required. The lectures leave ample room for discussion: students are encouraged to prepare the materials for the following lecture in advance and to take part, so that from the outset they practise the comparison between different legal traditions that lies at the heart of the course.
- Other information
- Active classroom participation is strongly encouraged. Students are advised to read the topics of the following lecture in advance, so that they can take an active part in the classroom discussion. During and at the end of each lecture, the lecturer invites participants to ask questions and seek clarification. Students may also contact her by e-mail, Teams chat, or telephone for further clarification and explanation.
- Learning verification modality
- Assessment consists of a final oral examination of approximately thirty minutes, in the form of a discussion of the subjects covered during the course and studied in greater depth in the recommended texts. The examination is designed to assess the student's level of knowledge and their powers of comprehension and synthesis, as well as their ability to convey what they have learnt with method, a good command of language, and clarity of expression. Its length may vary depending on how the examination develops; it usually begins with an open question on a topic chosen by the student, so as to put them at ease. For students who do not take the exemption described below, the oral exam covers the whole syllabus and determines the entire grade.
At the end of the part devoted to Common Law, an optional intermediate written exemption test is held, covering the first part of the course (introduction to comparison, Civil Law, and Common Law). The test, lasting about two hours, consists of 15 single-answer questions and 2 open-ended questions. It is open both to attending students and to working students, the latter upon presentation of appropriate certification. Passing it allows the first part to be excluded from the final exam: the corresponding grade contributes half of the overall evaluation, while the oral exam, limited to the second part of the course (the Post-Socialist, Islamic, and pluralist traditions), contributes the other half. The test is optional and is not recorded in the SOL register.
Students who have passed the exemption test remain free to sit the entire oral exam on the whole syllabus; in that case, the better of the two results will be counted towards the overall grade.
Should a student wish to sit the exam in a year earlier than the one scheduled in their study plan, it is recommended that they attend the course lectures and take the exam at the first available session after the lectures have ended, in accordance with the semester in which the course is scheduled - Extended program
- The course does not study the positive law of individual countries, but the major legal traditions into which the world's legal systems are grouped, and the method for comparing them. The aim is not to memorise notions, but to acquire the coordinates needed to recognise which tradition a given legal system belongs to, to understand its underlying logic, sources, and main actors, and to grasp the relationships of mutual influence between traditions: skills that help students find their bearings in international and transnational contexts, where systems of different origins coexist and intertwine. The programme therefore moves from the methodological foundations of comparison to the individual traditions, following their historical development, current state, and dynamics of convergence and divergence.
Introduction to comparative law
• the main legal traditions of the world and their geographical boundaries;
• the objectives and methods of comparative law;
• legal pluralism as a primary tool for the study of comparative law.
The Civil Law tradition
• the historical origins of this legal tradition;
• the main sources and actors of Civil Law;
• the role of universities in the development of Civil Law;
• the codifications of private law in the 19th and 20th centuries;
• recent developments and synergies with the Common Law tradition.
The Common Law tradition Common Law in England:
• the historical origins of this legal tradition;
• the main sources and actors of English Common Law;
• the role of the courts in the development of the Common Law system;
• the development of Equity and its competition with the Common Law;
• the role of statutes within the Common Law system. Common Law in the United States:
• the transplantation of the British model in North America;
• the main differences between American and English Common Law;
• the US federal structure, its written constitution, and the US court system;
• the theory of precedent in England and the United States. Geographical boundaries and evolution of the Common Law family. Convergence and divergence between the Common and Civil Law traditions: to what extent is it meaningful to speak of a Western legal tradition?
The Post-Socialist tradition
• the genesis of the Socialist family;
• its main features, sources, and main legal actors;
• the evolution of Socialist Law at the end of the twentieth century;
• the current boundaries of the Post-Socialist family and the impact of Civil and Common Law models upon it.
The Islamic legal tradition
• the origins and historical development of the Islamic law family;
• its main features, sources, and main legal actors;
• the colonial period and the modernisation of Islamic law;
• the distribution and evolution of the Islamic law family: the law of Islamic countries, its modernisation, and the impact of Civil and Common Law models.
The "pluralist" tradition (African law and other systems based on traditional law)
• what legal pluralism means, and why and to what extent it is still relevant today;
• the main features, legal sources, and legal actors of the pluralist family;
• the notions of traditional law and its relationship with Islamic and state law;
• African law today and the impact of Civil and Common Law models upon African traditional and religious law. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- The course aims to provide a non-ethnocentric approach to the study of law, based on the principle of the equal dignity and value of each major world legal tradition. As such, it is in line with Goals 4, 16, and 17 of the 2030 Agenda.