Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

Aims in students’ formation

The class aims at deepening the students’ knowledge on the role of the judiciary in common law. In this context, lectures are directed at providing the students with a knowledge which will be of relevance for the activities they will practice after university, especially if they will have to deal with Anglo-american sources of law.

In line with the above indications, the class will not be directed at the acquisition of a large quantity of traditional notions, but to the experiment of how judicial opinions are drafted. Consistently with this purpose, the meetings will focus on terminology, style, arguments put  forward by lawyers, analysis of previous cases. The knowledge offered to the student will mainly refer to the careful observation of interaction between the parties and the judge, having in mind how civil law cases are dealt with in continental Europe.

Expected results

The class is intended to provide students with a thorough knowledge of and a better insight into the role of judges in different contexts. Students will have an opportunity to reflect on the different approaches that are possible to judicial decisions.

The course also aims at providing students with a thorough knowledge of the context in which cases are discussed: the formation of lawyers is relevant, the presence/absence of the jury is significant, the drafting of legislative acts makes a difference.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Compare the facts analysis drawn by common lawyers with the equivalent description in Italian/French judicial cases;
• understand the key-factors to be considered in order to avoid misunderstandings of common law judicial precedents;
• learn how to effectively present a case to an audience;
• understand how to write a report in English in order to expose the main features of a learning experience
• interact with an interviewer who asks clarifications, objects counterarguments, points out gaps etc.

Programme

The class examines the most common features of the drafting of judicial decisions and it is intended to provide an insight into the issues raised in this field by the use of metaphors, irony, arguments ad absurdum, distinguishing of present facts from previous cases that might otherwise be binding on the court..

In particular, the course will analyse the following topics:

• inquisitorial trial (or Bench trial) v. trial by jury/accusatory trial;
• the role of the jury
• lawyers' formation and career;
• selection of judges;
• law clerks in UK and USA
• analysis of facts (agreement of parties on which facts to cross-examine)
• why judges use irony and metaphors, the fictitious dialogue to recreate events
• old words in present times (Law French and Latin)
• references to general literature and classics.

The class tries to explore in English some issues concerning the common law that cannot be fully taught in the general class of introduction to the major legal systems.
In particular we shall consider some  differences between England and the USA as far as the written sources of law are concerned, having regard to statutes, their role in relation to the case-law, how far the judicial precedent is binding.
 We shall try to improve the students’ use of legal terminology, we shall consider the different styles of statutes, judicial opinions, legal literature.
 This class presupposes a sound knowledge of  the basic notions about the common law that are taught in the introductory course of comparative law (Sistemi giuridici comparati).
A Useful materials to attend classes will be published on line, before the class takes place.

Students will be encouraged to participate to the discussions, to try and express their thoughts in English, to learn some of the main expressions of the English legal language.

Classes will be held in presence . Materials useful to understand each meeting will be partly uploaded on Moodle so that students will be able to have access to them.(Moodle, please enroll in the platform by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page).

In order to keep students tuned during classes, their active participation is encouraged. They have to read real cases selected by the lecturer.  They will write a report in English on the case, adding their impressions, observations.

Students will also have the opportunity to take actively part to the lectures by making presentations – subdivided in groups of no more than 3 persons – on some of the most significant cases as assigned by the Professor (and available in the text book).

Students will also have the opportunity to benefit from lectures held by eminent judges and available on internet: interviews delivered by Lord Denning or Lady Hale are very helpful in understanding the way in which common lawyers conceive the role of the judiciary.

Each student will present a case by powerpoint presentation, she/he will prepare a test to submit to other students (a gap filling exercise to be carried out in class), each student will write a report of some 3-4 pages on own’s experience (how the sources have been tracked, which difficulties were met, what seemed unexpected, if any analogy has been found with civil law cases, etc.). 

For students attending classes: evaluation occurs during the whole process of teaching by means of written tests at the end of each meeting,  by means of the final report on a judicial case and addressed to the lecturer

Exams

Exams will be held on the dates established by the governing body of the university: they will generally consist in the discussion of the reports written by the students, in a conversation on issues met during the classes. For students who have not been able to attend: a discussion on the book by von Mehren, Law in the United States, (2nd edition by von Mehren, Arthur T., Murray, Peter L. 2007)  will replace the conversation on our meetings.

For students attending classes:

Ferreri, Piletta massaro, Casi di comparazione giuridica, Giuffré, 2024

For students not attending classes:

Arthur R. von Mehren, P. L. Murray, Law in the United States, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press,  2007,USA, isbn: 978-0-521--61753-6 (paperback).

class taught both for students following the 5 years curriculum in law and for students attending the European Legal studies curriculum.