Informazioni sul corso

This lecture provides a systematic overview of European Private Law and its historical foundations with a special focus on the law of obligations. We will compare the legal concepts of the different national legal systems to discuss their similarities and differences. To understand the development of modern legal doctrines we will study the subject also in a historical perspective. It lays open the common ground on which the modern law is based, but also why different turns in the national systems have been taken. In the next step, we will look at various initiatives, which have been taken to harmonize European Private Law. At the same time, a critical assessment of the new law shall take place. By the end of the semester, the students shall have created an awareness of a fundamental intellectual unity based on a common tradition, but also of the need for further reflections with regard to the theoretical, cultural and political dimensions of a European Codification project and the structure of European Private Law in general.