Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

This course aims to convey the fundamentals of Roman civil and procedural Law, conceived as the basis of at least a half of the legal systems existing in and outside Europe. Students will be encouraged to focus on the peculiar attitude of the Roman jurists towards the legal reasoning and to develop an understanding of the legal phenomenon considered in an historical perspective.

At the end of the course, students are expected to acquire a good mastering of the Roman legal concepts, principles and reasoning, and by such a better understanding of the basis of private law in most legal systems.

Due to the present Coronavirus emergency, and also considering the many international students who are about to register to this course and will not be able to attend regular face-to-face lectures, the teaching will be organised as following.

Video lectures or PPT or other kind of material (depending on the topic) will be uploaded in the Moodle section of this webpage according to the ordinary lectures timetable (every Thursday and Friday on 10.00 pm). 

Every two weeks (usually on Friday at 10,00), there will be a face-to-face meeting of two hours, which will concern an in-depth survey of some particularly interesting topic or answers/discussions/explanations regarding questions asked by the students. Streaming of such meetings will be available, and registrations will be uploaded on Moodle.

UPDATE ABOUT THE IN-PRESENCE MEETINGS: due to the many requests and to the priority given to Italian first-year and second-year courses, our logistic service cannot presently guarantee Covid-free rooms for all activities; therefore, no meeting will take place for the first two weeks of the course. After such period, the situation will be reconsidered. Updates will be given asap on this webpage, by on-line announcements and by mail to all registered student.

UPDATE (2) ABOUT THE IN-PRESENCE MEETINGS: according to the new measures taken by our University, no in-presence lecture will be allowed till March 20th, 2021. 

 Students are therefore kindly asked to register to the course and also to register in the Moodle section, as this is needed in order to receive emails regarding the course (e.g. regarding meetings, teaching material, exams, etc).

Lectures and meetings do not replace the studying of the textbook, as they will usually cover only the most relevant aspects of Roman law. Nonetheless, students are higly encouraged to watch video lectures and participate to meetings, as these will be very useful for the understanding of the many technicalities of this subject-matter.

Remember that the modalities of teaching as here described could change because of a changing of the sanitary emergency. Please consult regularly this webpage.  

Due to the permanent sanitary emergency, exams will still be held online and will be divided in two parts. The first part will consist in a text with multiple choice, which will be accessible on Moodle, consisting in 20 (twenty) questions, to be answered in 20 minutes. Every right answer will receive 1 point. A minimum of 12 (twelve) points will be needed in order to access the second part of the exam, which will be oral and held in a Webex room. 

In the happy case that the sanitary emergency is solved, the examination will be in a face-to-face modality and only in written form. It will consist of three sections, which must be completed in one hour.

As the modalities of the examinations here described could change because of a changing of the current sanitary emergency, please consult regularly this webpage. 

 

UPDATE March 30th, 2021

in the next 2021 summer call the oral part of the exam will be in presence, while the written part will still consist in a test accessible on moodle. 

International students living abroad could  not be able to reach our university because of the pandemic; in this case, their oral exam can still take place online (on the webex room: https://unito.webex.com/meet/lucia.zandrino), provided that they make a reservation on moodle. The reservation form is available at the bottom of the moodle page. Students can access it till three days before the exam. Online oral part will take place on the same day of the written part at 11.00 in the morning (test takes place at 9,30); in-presence oral part will take place the day after, at 11,30 ( all exam dates will be published starting from the next week on the "bacheca appelli" at  https://esse3.unito.it/ListaAppelliOfferta.do;jsessionid=D1B4A23448A7AD95F0E5F85AF93624B5.esse3-unito-prod-03?cod_lingua=eng&EnableLayout=1#shortcut)

Italian students having problems in reaching the university should contact Prof. Zandrino by email before reserving and offer evidence of their situation. Of course, should Piedmont be considered again as a "red area" this summer, neither emails nor any reservation will be needed and all exams will be online.

Professor Zandrino could be in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh, in September, in which case all exams will be online  

According to the pre-pandemic praxis, in-presence exams should be entirely written (consisting in three parts: a test, a definition and an essay on a specific subject). However, considering the difficult and ever-changing situation we are all living, it seemed unfair to change entirely the modality of the exam so abruptly. If, as we all hope, normal life is back again in autumn, ordinary exam modalities will be reinstated on the winter call.

 

None (but please see what is written above about the meetings every two weeks)

This course offers a wide survey, with a both systematic and historical approach, of the Roman private and procedural law, hemphasising its development from the monarchic period till the Justinian age. Lectures will regard the following thematic sectors: 

1) sources of law;

2) law of actions;

3) law of persons;

4) law of property;

5) law of obligations.

 

Please notice the law of successions and last wills is excluded from the topics of this course (see under in the textbook section).

W.W. Buckland, A Manual of Roman Private Law (II ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1939 (paperback edition 2011) [pages 146-152, 172-246 are excluded]. Please notice this textbook can be very easily ordered online, both on the website of its publishing house and on the biggest web retailers. In any case, students who have a difficulty in finding such textbook are kindly requested to contact the professor.