HISTORY OF CODIFICATIONS

Aim of this course is to describe the phenomenon of Codifications as a distinctive feature of the juridical system of continental Europe.
After describing the ius commune system in its main traits, mentioning its peculiarities and illustrating the main reasons for its crisis, we’ll introduce the concepts of collection and of consolidation of legislative (and judicial) sources: the main examples produced in Italy and in the rest of Europe will be taken into consideration.
We will later discuss the cultural premises of the idea of codification, focusing on the movements of Jusnaturalism and of juridical Illuminism. The political consequences of these movements will be later considered, with reference both to Enlightened Absolutism and to the French Revolution.
We’ll later discuss the long efforts to produce a civil Code in revolutionary and post-revolutionary France, focusing also on the alternative model of the Austrian ABGB. We’ll then examine the anti-codification movement that established itself in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, in the cultural enviornment of Romanticism.
The various codifications of the pre-unitarian States of the Italian peninsula will be later discussed, focusing on the their interaction with the different European models. Special attention will of course be given to the Codes of the Duchy of Parme, whose peculiarities will be highlighted.
After describing the conclusion of the codification dispute in Germany, with the enactment of the German civil Code (BGB), we will take into consideration the other Codes introduced at the beginning of the 20th century: the Swiss civil Code and the Codex iuris canonici of the 20th century. We’ll then discuss the relationship between the Codification of law and the totalitaristic regimes of the 20th century.
Our last topic will be the diffusion of the different models of Code at a planetary level.