Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE CVL1000

 
TITLE Comparative Legal Systems and Legal Pluralism

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Civil Law

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit provides an understanding of the methods of comparative law and how these can be applied to enhance students’ knowledge of major ‘Western’ private and public legal systems, both historical and contemporary. These systems will be compared to one another and also to “non-Western” systems, such as the Islamic legal system. This study-unit aims at giving students an introduction to: historical and comparative legal sources; legal pluralism, receptions, and transplants; various forms of legal imperialism and the responses they provoked; the development of common and national laws, the nation-state, and legal nationalism. Particular emphasis will be placed on the continental and Anglo-American legal traditions and also on understanding mixed jurisdictions, such as the Maltese.

On successful completion of the study-unit, a candidate should: have a firm knowledge and understanding of the subject; be capable of utilising a wide range of learning and research tools and be skilled in presenting publicly and in writing complex ideas and arguments on the subject. He/she should be capable of developing an advanced understanding of the subject through independent research.

Learning Outcomes:

• The first section of the study-unit will provide the student with a general overview of the historical and contemporary plurality of law as understood in comparative legal history and comparative law.

• In the second section, the student will then be exposed to the concept of ‘legal pluralism’ as employed in the social sciences, especially anthropology.

• In this way, the student will be familiarised with:
- the historical movement in Western law from normative and legal plurality to the unity of national laws under the modern state;
- modern Western legal traditions and the varieties of contemporary legal hybridity around the world; and
- the complex interrelationship between the official laws of the modern states and the unofficial laws and social norms of the wider society.

• These insights should serve to develop the student’s theoretical knowledge of law’s complexities as well as more immediately practical skills of critical thinking essential to the practice of law.

Selected Bibliography:

Required text:

• K Zweigert and H Kötz “Introduction to comparative law” 3rd Edition, 1998

Additional useful texts:

• JH Baker “An introduction to English legal history” 4th Edition, 2002
• DR Coquillette ”The Anglo-American legal heritage” 2nd Edition, 2004
• R David “Major legal systems of the world today” 1985
• P Fitzpatrick “Laws of the Postcolonial” 1999
• M Ganado ‘Malta: A Microcosm of International Influences’ in Örücü, E, Attwooll, E and Coyle, S (eds) “Studies in Legal Systems: Mixed and Mixing” 1996
• MA Glendon et al “Comparative legal traditions” 1994
• MA Glendon “Comparative legal traditions in a nutshell” 1999
• HP Glenn “Legal traditions of the world” 2nd Edition, 2004
• HP Glenn “On common laws” 2005
• JM Kelly “A short history of Western legal theory” 1992
• U. Mifsud Bonnici “An introduction to comparative law” 2004
• OF Robinson, TD Fergus, and WM Gordon “European legal history: sources and institutions” 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0406913609
• PJ Stein “Roman law in European history” 1999
• RC Van Caenegem “Judges, legislators & professors” 1987
• RC Van Caenegem “The birth of the English common law” 2nd Edition, 1988
• RC Van Caenegem “An historical introduction to private law” 1992
• DG Watkin “An historical introduction to modern civil law” 1999
• F Wieacker “A history of private law in Europe” 1995

Articles to consult:

• Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, which can be found at: http://www.jlp.bham.ac.uk/articlesindex.htm

Further online articles:

• M. R. Anderson “Islamic Law and the Colonial Encounter in British India”, WLUML (Women Living under Muslim Laws) Occasional Paper No. 7, 1996: http://www.wluml.org/english/pubs/pdf/occpaper/OCP-07.pdf
• A. Arnaud, “Legal Pluralism and the building of Europe”, in the website of the European Network on Law and Society:
http://www.reds.msh-paris.fr/communication/textes/arnaud2.htm#
• Jarkko Tontti, “European legal pluralism as a rebirth of Ius commune”, Retfaerd 94, 2001:
http://www.jarkkotontti.net/blog/tieteilya-ja-filosofiaa/european-legal-pluralism-as-a-rebirth-of-ius-commune-retfaerd-942001/
• William W. Burke-White, “International Legal Pluralism”, Michigan Journal of international Law, Vol. 25 no. 4, 2004:
http://students.law.umich.edu/mjil/article-pdfs/v25n4-burke-white.pdf

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Seminar

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 10%
Multiple Choice Questions Examination (1 Hour) SEM2 Yes 90%

 
LECTURER/S Ignazio Castellucci
Ibtisam Sadegh
David E. Zammit (Co-ord.)

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit