History of European Legal Science

The foundations of today's private law were largely laid from the twelfth century onwards within the "learned law" tradition, when the young European Universities, like Bologna, began to study the decisions of the ancient Roman jurists and Emperors, as compiled by Justinian in the later called Corpus Iuris Civilis. The legal concepts, structures and methods developed in a scholarly environment by these learned lawyers shaped also the legal practice ("reception") in most of Europe ("ius commune"). Through multiple incarnations and reinventions, this Romanistic tradition managed to survive in one form or another the tectonic shifts that marked the political history of Europe up to the modern era and, starting at the end of the 18th century, provided the basic material for the creation of the national codifications of civil law and for legal dogmatics.

The lectures will be held by Prof. Alonso on Wednesdays, 8:00-9:45 according to the following schedule: