“Ius commune at the borders: a new research project”, Seminario “Ius commune at the borders. Scandinavia and America”, Seminari di Storia del diritto e del pensiero giuridico, 28 ottobre 2020, Università degli Studi di Padova.

As shown by several recent studies, the influence of ius commune extended much further than its traditional core area. The seminar discusses the expansion and changes of ius commune in three significant corners of Europe, which in the classical narrative were either totally or partially were left out of the picture: England, Scandinavia, and Venice. The project will not only be interested in the traditional question of the influence of ius commune. Instead, the project will compare the different constellations of normativity and legal pluralism in England, Scandinavia, and Venice. We will ask how not only ius commune but also other forms of normativity – such as customary law, written norms, and legal practice – were used and applied, and how they circulated. The approach will create new narratives as to how the relationship between centers and peripheries in Europe evolved in the early modern period. These new narratives will be built from bottom to top; thus, based on concrete source information, and focusing on the learned legal systems and their connection to the local legal sources. What is more, we will look into the circulation of professors and doctors, students, and legal texts, starting from the idea that a theoretical understanding of the forms of normativity can only emerge through concrete, multidisciplinary research recognizing the tensions between global legal unification and differentiation.