Rettshistorie og komparativ rett

Objectives and content

In an era of strong internationalization of law, lawyers need an understanding of foreign legal cultures and comparative legal methods. By engaging in legal historical and comparative studies of Norwegian and select foreign legal cultures, students gain knowledge and skills essential for contemporary lawyers, including new perspectives of law, understanding legal change, and skills needed for cross-border cooperation. A systematic analysis of law in context requires applying an operationalized concept of legal culture which can provide knowledge and understanding of how the law is produced and applied in different legal orders. Comparing legal cultures historically and comparatively will enable students to identify, explain, and analyze similarities and differences among legal cultures.

The historical perspective provides the students with understanding for the origin and development of the contemporary legal cultures, their specific features and challenges when handling the internationalization of law.

The overall aim of the course is, first, to enhance the student's ability to understand, evaluate, discuss, and critically analyze Norwegian law from a comparative perspective. Second, the course aims at enhancing the students' skills to reflect academically. This encompasses the basic criteria for using proper references, stylistic choices, identification of the "research" question and conclusions. Furthermore, students will be able to review academic texts critically. Third, the course offers an opportunity to get into contact and cooperate with students from other legal cultures. This entails internationalization at home. Fourth, the course provides basic knowledge regarding the methods, aims and functions of legal historical research and an understanding of the historical roots of the contemporary legal cultures of especially England, France, Germany, and Norway. Fifth, part of the teaching, and almost all teaching materials on comparative law, are in English. This allows students to acquire and use vocabulary in both English and Norwegian in comparative law.

A group assignment will be carried out in mixed groups consisting of Norwegian and international students. This will make a fertile environment for learning to communicate with lawyers from different legal-cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Knowledge

Students shall be able to

1) describe the difference between a narrow and a wide concept of legal culture,

2) describe the legal-cultural model and its elements: institutionalized constitutional values, norm production, conflict resolution, legal education and ideal of justice, legal method, degree and attitude towards professionalization and internationalization,

3) describe and explain changes within, and interaction between, elements of the legal-cultural model,

4) describe the historical preconditions and developments of the Norwegian and other (select) legal cultures,

5) describe the difference between primary and secondary sources in legal history,

6) identify the central features of the English, French, German, Norwegian and other Nordic legal cultures,

7) explain basic concepts in legal comparative methods including the object of comparison, selection of jurisdictions studied, the comparative method and identification and explanation of similarities and differences,

8) describe the basic requirements for producing, structuring, and evaluating academic texts, including when and how to make references to sources.

Skills

Students shall be able to

1) use the legal-cultural model to analyze the interaction between the institutional and intellectual structures of legal cultures and particularly the elements of the legal-cultural model, and to analyze and explain legal-cultural changes,

2) critically evaluate the merits and limits of the historical and comparative dimensions of the legal-cultural model,

3) identify, use, and interpret historical legal sources to analyze the development of law in legal cultures in a European and global context,

4) conduct legal comparisons by identifying the object of comparison, selecting appropriate jurisdictions, selecting an appropriate method of comparison, identifying similarities and differences, and providing plausible explanations for the findings (cf. the COMPASS formula),

5) explain how the legal cultural model and the other comparative methods can be applied in comparative law and the advantages and disadvantages of the methods,

6) discuss the merits and limitations of classifications particularly the distinction between civil- and common law, comparative methods, and selected key concepts in comparative law,

7) identify and explain legal-cultural similarities and differences in particular among the English, French, German, Norwegian and other Nordic legal cultures,

8) write and critically assess academic texts in both Norwegian and English,

9) communicate in oral and written format and collaborate with lawyers who are native speakers of other languages and educated in other legal cultures than the Norwegian one.

General competence

Students shall achieve the competence to

1) understand and appreciate the importance of historical perspectives on the domestic and other legal cultures,

2) understand and appreciate law as a legal-culturally embedded phenomenon,

3) communicate and discuss legal issues with foreign lawyers based on an appreciation for legal-cultural differences,

4) actively participate in current international legal debates by providing a Norwegian perspective,

5) write and review papers in accordance with academic standards in Norwegian and English,

6) work in international teams of lawyers

7) present the results of legal cultural, comparative, or historical studies orally and in writing to an audience of international lawyers, in English.