"Law Reporting" in Europe in the Early-Modern Period: Two Experiences in Comparison

The article challenges the cliché handed down to us by the European legal tradition of a marked contrast between ‘common law’, assumed as case-law/anti-doctrinal law, always opposed to ‘civil law’, seen as doctrinal/non case-law. Focusing on English and Italian legal historiography on the Great Tribunals and the collections of their decisions on both sides of the Channel, the article attempts to show that the traditional paradigm cannot be applied tout court to the medieval and early-modern period. In particular, the article highlights that the European Continental Great Tribunals’ decisiones, credited with binding force by such powerful and authoritative courts, can be considered – in broad sense – nothing else than ‘case-law’.