2837.19 - Roman Law


Course number
2837.19
Title
Roman Law
ECTS
5
Purpose
This is a contextualizing course within the B.L. degree program designed to place contemporary legal systems—particularly Scandinavian legal systems to which the Danish and Faroese legal systems belong—within the historical and developmental context of Roman Law, the principal fount of Civil Law systems, but also to some degree making an imprint on Scandinavian law. Thus, this is meant to deepen the student's understanding of contemporary Faroese-Danish law — Its concepts, practices and principles — by reflecting upon its historical origins and its influence, especially on the conceptual level, from the law of the ancient Rome.
Content
This course will provide a brief historical overview of Roman Law and its Civil Law descendants, hereunder its influence of Scandinavian Law, from the time of ancient Rome to the present, an examination of the sources and concepts of Roman Law, an account of Roman Litigation, an account of contracts and obligations in Roman Law, and an examination of partnerships in Roman Law and in modern Civil Codes.
Learning and teaching approaches
Students will study Roman law through the media of assigned readings, lectures, interactive discussions, and advisory work included in the everyday teaching. Teaching will be in the form of lectures and interactive discussions and advice and will throughout emphasize the relationship between case and system, system and case: how the cases build the system, how the system influences cases. The teaching is aimed at second-year law students with little previous training in the history of law.
Learning outcomes
Students completing this course should be able to: - describe basic elements and principles of Roman private law (8th century BC – 6th century AD). - explain its sources and principal institutions in the course of their historical development. - gain an appreciation of the development of current legal systems, institutions and practices in the context of the roman law influence. - evaluate questions concerning the great, centuries-old debates among Roman jurists, and the various discordant opinions within Roman jurisprudence. - strengthen the communicative skills that depend upon grasping the particularity of juridical language by understanding the roman law influenced etymology of its words, phrases and concepts.
Assessment method
Course grades will be based upon three assessed items: (1) A multiple-choice examination during the first teaching week of the course, week 36, covering the assigned readings for the first week of class, which are to be read in advance (20%); (2) a multiple-choice examination during week 38 on the assigned readings and in-class teaching and discussions for the first three teaching weeks (40%); and (3) a 5 day take home examination designed to test the student's systematic or comprehensive understanding of the course material (40%).
Examination
Internal
Marking scale
7-
Bibliography
The assigned reading will be selections from Andrew Borkowski & Paul du Plessis. Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law, 6th edition (2020) or earlier edition.
Contact
Bárður Larsen