The art of Explaining
S.2 12/13 – G.18 (Degree: Law)
Historical Foundations of the Legal System – Topic 3
Legal humanism. Mos gallicus and usus modernus Pandectarum
Regalism
The XVIIIth century: power as “jurisdiction” and the “administrative monarchy”
The Nueva Planta regime
Textbook:
P. GROSSI, A History of European Law, pp. 54-58
Reading:
L. MANNORI; B. SORDI, “Science of Administration and Administrative Law”
Text:
Further Articles of Impeachment against E. Oxford (House of Lords Journal
Volume 20: 2 August 1715, pp. 136-144)
Comprehension Keys
Humanist criticism of medieval traditions extended to the different fields of knowledge of the time, including the legal field.
In the legal field, Renaissance humanism was deeply critical with the old “method” of doctrine development (mos italicus). It attacked the scarce linguistic knowledge of medieval jurists, the gaps in the sources they employed, as well as their defective reading and lack of knowledge of the history of Roman law.
In order to overcome the deficiencies that they claimed existed in previous centuries, humanist jurists deepened their knowledge of Latin and learned Greek. They occupied themselves with situating the legal texts and institutions of the Corpus iuris in history.
Due to the knowledge they acquired, as well as to their search for new sources, they not only directed their attention to classical Roman law, but also to classical Greek and
Latin literature (“humanities”), and ‘rehabilitated’ its authors. This was carried out under a new perspective that was more in line with the age and its new methods. Those methods did not have an erudite purpose but were rather conceived as instruments that – in the legal field– could guarantee the access to the best laws: philology, history, languages, criticism of texts, etc.
1
S.2 12/13 – G.18 (Degree: Law)
Historical Foundations of the Legal System – Topic 3
The understanding of Roman law as historical eventually weakened its
Historical Foundations of the Legal System – Topic 3
Legal humanism. Mos gallicus and usus modernus Pandectarum
Regalism
The XVIIIth century: power as “jurisdiction” and the “administrative monarchy”
The Nueva Planta regime
Textbook:
P. GROSSI, A History of European Law, pp. 54-58
Reading:
L. MANNORI; B. SORDI, “Science of Administration and Administrative Law”
Text:
Further Articles of Impeachment against E. Oxford (House of Lords Journal
Volume 20: 2 August 1715, pp. 136-144)
Comprehension Keys
Humanist criticism of medieval traditions extended to the different fields of knowledge of the time, including the legal field.
In the legal field, Renaissance humanism was deeply critical with the old “method” of doctrine development (mos italicus). It attacked the scarce linguistic knowledge of medieval jurists, the gaps in the sources they employed, as well as their defective reading and lack of knowledge of the history of Roman law.
In order to overcome the deficiencies that they claimed existed in previous centuries, humanist jurists deepened their knowledge of Latin and learned Greek. They occupied themselves with situating the legal texts and institutions of the Corpus iuris in history.
Due to the knowledge they acquired, as well as to their search for new sources, they not only directed their attention to classical Roman law, but also to classical Greek and
Latin literature (“humanities”), and ‘rehabilitated’ its authors. This was carried out under a new perspective that was more in line with the age and its new methods. Those methods did not have an erudite purpose but were rather conceived as instruments that – in the legal field– could guarantee the access to the best laws: philology, history, languages, criticism of texts, etc.
1
S.2 12/13 – G.18 (Degree: Law)
Historical Foundations of the Legal System – Topic 3
The understanding of Roman law as historical eventually weakened its