“Le origini culturali della Magna Carta e l’eredità del presente: un possibile «dialogo» tra common law e diritto continentale”, Convegno internazionale “The legacy of Magna Carta”, 17 maggio 2019, British Embassy, Roma

The essay challenges the cliché, handed down to us by the European legal tradition, of a marked contrast between English law as opposed and «exceptional» with respect to the European Continental legal tradition. The analysis of scholarship on the most important English constitutional document aims to answer the provocative question: how English is Magna Carta? Which role, if any, did jus commune play in its drafting? Which is the relationship between the Charter and contemporary Roman-Canon law? Through the examination of Magna Carta cultural roots, the essay shows not only the substantial influence of Roman-Canon law on it, but also, more generally, the analogies and common elements to the English and Continental legal traditions.