Ateneo - UPO

The course aims to investigate the historical evolution of trade law, from the Middle
Ages until now

The course will cover a range of more contextual topics, combined with more technical ones. Students
attending students will be provided (via the DIR page) with lecture content (slides) and in-depth texts to comment on in class.
The
non-attending students will be able to consult the same documentation, but they will have to supplement it (in order to place it in its context) with the study of two texts:
- Gianni Mignone, "Le regole dei mercanti. Introduzione al dritto commerciale", Università degli Studi di Torino, 2022, https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1873660/1/MIGNONE%202022%2C%20Le%20regole%20dei%20mercanti.pdf
- Stefania Gialdroni, East India Company. Una storia giuridica (1600-1706),
Bologna, Il Mulino 2011.

Acquire skills to understand the historical evolution of trade law and some of its
specific characteristics, such as the great importance of customs.

To have taken the History of Medieval and Modern Law course and thus acquired basic knowledge of the evolution of sources, the main ways of interpreting rules, the ius commune and the jurists who developed it and the role of iura propria.

The course will be conducted mainly through lectures, with the use of powerpoint slides and documentary examples of contracts, legal opinions or other sources that will be commented on in class and that the student will find uploaded on the Dir.

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/servicesstudents-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

A written exoneration will be given halfway through the course on the syllabus carried out up to that point, which will comprise two open-ended questions: the first assuming a broader answer, the second more concise. The student must be able to argue the answers in a concise but precise manner, demonstrating his or her knowledge of the topics covered and ability to make connections, including diachronic ones. The grade will be a consequence of the balance between the two answers and will take into consideration not only the knowledge displayed but also the argumentative ability. The final examination, on the other hand, will be oral and, if the student has obtained a satisfactory mark for the exoneration, will consist of a single question on the remaining part of the syllabus; if, on the other hand, the student has not obtained a satisfactory mark or has not taken the exoneration, it will consist of three questions on the entire syllabus. The student must demonstrate knowledge of the topics covered and the ability to move diachronically to highlight the evolution of the institutions and sources. The final grade will take into account both the result of the written exoneration and the answer in the oral examination, but not by means of a weighted mathematical average, but rather starting from the grade of the exoneration, with the possibility, following the oral answer, to improve or worsen it, but without departing excessively from it. Not only the knowledge acquired will be assessed, but also transversal skills, such as the ability to argue and discuss with the lecturer the issues highlighted during the course.

The course will examine in particular the evolution of commercial law from the
Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, emphasizing the peculiarity of the subject,
as a result of a daily practice that will become custom; in the meantime, highlighting
also the universal application of that legal uses, as a tool used by all the merchants
in the known world to negociate each other. The analysis will be conducted both in
terms of the medieval development of lex mercatoria and the birth of an organised
commercial system (families and companies, the prohibition of usury, the foundation
of the banks and the introduction of the bill of exchange, the evolution of the
insurance contract), both in relation to its existence in the communal world (guilds’
organization and political influence of the merchants, mechanisms for resolving
internal disputes, regulation of bankruptcy). With the crisis of the medieval
indipendent cities and the rise of the Signoria, the Prince will improve his personal
intervention in the creation of standards and commercial jurisdiction: key points of
this process will be particularly the Ordonnances du commerce et de la marine of
Louis XIV of France (1673-1681) and after that the napoleonic codification, with the
promulgation of the Commercial Code of 1807 and its spread as the European
model. Touches will ultimately be reserved on the legal debate that led to the
unification of the italian code of commerce with the civil one, that took place in the
1942.

The student should acquire the ability to describe the practical development of commercial law, its sources, its relationship with common law and learned jurists, the jurisdiction of mercantile courts and its quality as ius proprium. He should also be able to reconstruct the evolution of the various institutions covered and discuss its progressive incorporation by the modern state into sovereign legislation, up to the commercial codification.