LL241 One Unit
European Legal History
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Igor Stramignoni
Availability
This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study, Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley and LLB in Laws. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is freely available to General Course students. It does not require permission.
This course is capped. Places will be assigned on a first come first served basis.
Course content
This course seeks to explore some of the key moments in the historical development of the concept, practice and use of the law in Western Europe. A stronger emphasis is placed on historical and cultural questions to do with the emergence and advance of law in the Mediterranean world than on the study of “positive” law itself.
The course opens with the emergence of a certain kind of “law” (ius) in and around archaic Rome during the first millennium BCE. It then turns to subsequent developments as Roman law made the Roman world possible. As the ancient world of Rome wanes, and is replaced by the extraordinary and expansive world of Christianity, Roman law takes on new and different configurations. Things will shift again during the Italian Renaissance, Northern Humanism, and European Enlightenment, and with the French Revolution of 1789, leading up to the first major codification of law to take place in modern Europe. The course will stop at these later developments occurring at the threshold of modernity and conclude by considering whether law, despite its supposed “impolitical” nature, may not have constituted, all along, the “most hidden cosmology of the moderns”.
Teaching
1 hours of lectures and 1 hours of classes in the Spring Term.
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.
Formative assessment
At least one formative (unassessed) essay per term.
Indicative reading
There is no single textbook for this course. Instead, students will be required to familiarize themselves with the content of a mixture of visual aids (designed specifically for this course by Dr Stramignoni) and of written sources, including a selection of chapters from a range of different books and shorter articles from a variety of scientific journals - suggesting different philosophical, historical, and socio-cultural approaches to the past of "law" in Europe. Those thinking to take this course are encouraged to explore the course Moodle page for more information or contact the course convenor directly.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 210 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Autumn and Winter Term
Unit value: One unit
FHEQ Level: Level 5
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 18
Average class size 2024/25: 18
Capped 2024/25: Yes(30)Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills