Abstract
Teaching comparative law classes may be challenging when presenting legal systems others than one’s own to students who may themselves come from the legal tradition one is trying to illustrate to students. The difficulty has become increasingly clear when we have to address students belonging to cultures where the distinction between law and religion is not perceived as meaningful, or where the “rule of law” takes shades of meaning rather different from the conception we have developed from our Western experience. We are often unconsciously transmitting our underlying persuasions, we do not have a complete command of the foreign sources of law (language barriers may affect our knowledge), we are sometimes addressing sensitive issues (women equality, discrimination, autonomy of the judiciary and so on). How do we cope with these problems? Which suggestions are offered by experts on teaching to diverse classes?
My report has been improved by information and support given by the Rector of Turin University, Professor Gianmaria Ajani, a distinguished comparative law colleague to whom I address my gratitude.
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Notes
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- 2.
UN Assembly Resolution 289 (1949). Some details on the history of contacts between Italy and Somalia can be found at http://www.il-cornodafrica.it/st-melecacorposomalia.pdf.
- 3.
- 4.
Grossfeld (1990), p. 4.
- 5.
David (1962) openly declares that classifications were inescapably arbitrary, instrumental only as “didactic tools” rather than representing a “biological reality.” Also Zweigert and Kötz (1992), p. 77 insists on the practical advantage of taxonomies, to simplify the initial stages of research in specific topics. Cf. also Garoupa and Pargendler (2014) as well as Pargendler (2012).
- 6.
Arminjon et al. (1950/1952).
- 7.
Lévy-Ullmann (1923), p. 81 seq. selects “scientifically determined affinities”.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Kötz (2003).
- 11.
Spamann (2009), p. 1815 describes the emerging persuasion among comparatists in the commercial field according to which there are “few if any relevant differences between common and civil law to-day”.
- 12.
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Palmer (2001) “covers seven of them (Louisiana, Israel, Scotland, South Africa, The Philippines, Puerto Rico and Quebec) and leaves out Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Saint Lucia and Zimbabwe. The number could be sixteen as Namibia is also mentioned in passing”; cf. also Örücü (2007, 2008).
- 14.
Örücü (2008), p. 2: “In addition, there would be ongoing mixtures, systems in transition, such as the legal systems looking for an identity, having left the socialist sphere… Poland, for instance, has a mixture of socialist law, Roman law, Polish law – itself a mix of German, French, Russian and Hungarian laws – traditional law and EU law. As some extreme examples one could also consider legally pluralist legal systems”.
- 15.
The Maori Language Act 1987 does not require all legislation to be published in Maori. However, “since this Act makes Maori an official language, the use of the language in statutes has become increasingly common”. As a result, legislative texts are written in English, but some texts are also in Maori or some Maori words are inserted into a specific Act. See Gambaro (2007).
- 16.
- 17.
Sacco (1980), p. 243 et seq.
- 18.
Watson (1974), p. 16.
- 19.
Yntema (1956), p. 899 et seq.
- 20.
Stein (1977), p. 216.
- 21.
- 22.
Maine (1861).
- 23.
Darwin (1859).
- 24.
- 25.
Buchberger et al. (2000), p. 15.
- 26.
Lévy-Strauss (1955).
- 27.
Doing Business (2004).
- 28.
- 29.
Glaeser and Shleifer (2009).
- 30.
Sen (2006). In the first pages of his book, the author recalls the annoying situation of asking for books on India in American bookstores and being immediately addressed to the section on “religion”, as if the whole reality of India coincided with the spiritual dimension.
- 31.
Mill (1819).
- 32.
“This is a ‘capacious view of a broad and generous Hinduism, which contrasts sharply with the narrow and bellicose versions that are currently on offer, led particularly by parts of the Hindutva movement’” (as observed by Soumya Bhattacharya for the Observer, 3 July, 2005).
- 33.
Örücü (2006), p. 310 ff. “An interesting scale of values came to light in a survey … juxtaposing some selected systems to the General Principles on divorce and maintenance drawn up by the CEFL. The scale ranged from a Lutheran population with an ex-socialist secular legal system (Estonia), a number of secular legal systems with Evangelical Lutheran populations (the Nordic countries), a predominantly Roman Catholic population with a secular legal system (France), Protestant Anglican population with a secular legal system (England and Wales), a Roman Catholic population without a secular legal system (Malta), to a Muslim population with a secular legal system (Turkey). The impact of the values these beliefs embody can be traced in their present family laws—secular or not—and regardless of their membership of the civil law or common law families. However, all these countries are on the path of modernisation but, within their own circumstances, definitely at different speeds and not necessarily in the same direction”. Örücü (2010), Section 3.2.
- 34.
Amin (1987), p. 93 ff.
- 35.
- 36.
The Trial of Miss Mary Blandy. In: The malefactorʼs register (1779), p. 135 et seq, 145.
- 37.
Bingham Lord (1992), p. 517.
- 38.
Ochoa (2016). A collaboration with Warwick university is ongoing (with referent Sarah Mc-Donald from the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning).
- 39.
Teaching issues focusing on the different cultural approaches is valued for instance in Germany, as shown by the university of Cologne with its International Management and Intercultural Communication (GlobalMBA), directed by Elke Schuch; cf., https://www.th-koeln.de/en/academics/international-management-and-intercultural-com-munication-masters-program_7182.php . See also the network CLE (Cultural Literacy in Europe), http://cleurope.eu/ as well as McKiernan et al. (2013), p. 219 et seq.
- 40.
Abermann and Gehrke (2016), p. 2.
- 41.
Edmead (2013).
- 42.
Leask et al. (2011), p. 650.
- 43.
Edwards et al. (2008).
- 44.
- 45.
Zhao (2007), p. 129.
- 46.
The program simulates UN debates. Once a week, a team of students meets to discuss predetermined issues, with each student representing a different country. The debates are held in accordance with the UN rules of debate. Cf. National Model of United Nations. http://www.nmun.org/.
- 47.
- 48.
In Italy we may refer to FanSubs, available at the website OpenSubtitles.org. It is run by the community ItalianSubs. FanSubs arose as fan-made subtitles for Japanese cartoons and “animé manga” and derive from the teamwork of semi-professional translators, mostly fans of the subtitled series.
- 49.
- 50.
Nazzini (2010).
- 51.
- 52.
Woo (2001), p. 453.
- 53.
Chromà (2004), p. 198.
- 54.
Ibidem.
- 55.
Ibidem. Cf. also Hoffman (2011), p. 1 ff.
- 56.
Goddard (2004).
- 57.
- 58.
Public Policy and Management Institute (2017).
- 59.
Arnesen et al. (2009). See also Competences for democratic culture (2016), p. 10, stating that “All cultures are internally heterogeneous, contested, dynamic and constantly evolving, and all people inhabit multiple cultures that interact in complex ways.”
Arnesen et al. (2009).
Council of Europe (2016).
- 60.
Leeds-Hurwitz (2013).
- 61.
Public Policy and Management Institute (2017), p. 60.
- 62.
- 63.
Burns (2009).
- 64.
Nota MIUR 05.11, prot. n. 36167 (2015).
- 65.
Public Policy and Management Institute (2017), p. 78.
- 66.
- 67.
- 68.
- 69.
Università degli Studi di Milano, Corso di perfezionamento in oratoria forense, http://www.oratoriaforense.unimi.it/obiettivi.html.
- 70.
Krieger and Neumann (2003).
- 71.
The committee was international in its composition and nominated by the Council for Higher Education. See Committee for the Evaluation of Law Study Programs (2015).
- 72.
E.g., the “debate club” at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliyas, a private research university, “enables students to improve their debating and speaking skills. Debating is a competitive sport, whose aim is to champion a position through the use of rhetoric, logically building an argument and critical thinking”. http://portal.idc.ac.il/en/main/about_idc/campuslife/academicactivities/pages/debateclub.aspx.
- 73.
The “debate Club” of the College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS), at Rishon LeZion (Tel Aviv), sent a delegation to the competition in Greece, Thessaloniki, in 2016.
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Ferreri, S. (2020). Comparative Law and Multicultural Legal Classes in Italy: Challenge or Opportunity?. In: Varga, C. (eds) Comparative Law and Multicultural Legal Classes: Challenge or Opportunity?. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46898-9_4
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