JUR610 Legal History and Comparative Law (Spring 2025)

Europeanisation and Globalisation have caused that Norwegian law has become subject to an extensive internationalization in the last decades. The course addresses the consequences and challenges of this process. The course provides students with several new perspectives on law and conveys knowledge and skills essential for 21st century lawyers. Among other perspectives, comparative law and legal history are actively used to achieve a deeper understanding of the applicable law in Norway and in other countries. This requires understanding law in context. Systematically analysing law in context requires applying an operationalized concept of legal culture which can provide knowledge and understanding for the way law is produced and applied in different legal orders. Comparing legal cultures both historically and comparatively will enable students to identify, explain and analyse similarities and difference among legal cultures and allow them to discuss particular challenges of the internationalisation of law for national legal cultures.

The overall aim of the course is, first to enhance the students’ ability to understand, evaluate, discuss and critically analyse Norwegian law in a European and global perspective. Second, the course aims at enhancing the students’ skills to reflect academically. This encompasses the ability to write papers according to international scientific standards. Third, the course offers a unique opportunity to get into contact and to cooperate with students from other legal cultures. For Norwegian students this entails internationalisation at home. Fourth, the course provides a unique opportunity to learn more about the Norwegian legal culture its historical roots and interaction with other cultures, both in the past and at present. Fifth, the language of the course and almost all teaching materials except for the materials on the Norwegian Legal History are provided in English. Hence, the course contributes to enhance the students’ ability to understand, communicate and discuss legal content in an international language, both orally and in writing.

Knowledge in Legal History:

Candidates shall be able to

• explain the development of law in Germanic societies and in Norway in particular

• explain the development of Roman law and its influence in continental Europe and in Norway in particular

• explain the Norwegian attempts of codifying the law in the middle ages and in modernity

Knowledge in Comparative Law:

Candidates shall be able to

• describe and explain how legal cultures can be identified with the help of an operationalised concept of legal cultures defined as ideas of and expectations to law made operational by institution(-like) practice,

• explain the difference between institutional and intellectual structures of legal cultures;

• explain and actively use the difference between a narrow and a wide concept of legal culture,

• explain and critically discuss of how of the narrow concept of legal culture can be transformed into a legal cultural model, with focus on the elements of institutionalized constitutional values, norm production, conflict resolution, legal education and ideal of justice, legal method, degree and attitude towards professionalisation and internationalisation.

• critically assess the advantages and limitations of the legal cultural model used as an analytical tool,

• apply the legal cultural model to identify and describe specific elements in legal cultures,

• describe and explain law as a multilayer phenomenon illustrated by the metaphor of a legal sea,

• analytically apply the legal sea-model distinguishing the surface from deeper levels of law, in order to qualify the degree and extent of change of legal cultures over time,

• describe the historical preconditions and developments of the Norwegian and other (selected) legal cultures,

• describe and explain changes within and interaction between elements of the legal cultural model and using the insights to analyse historical and contemporary changes in legal cultures,

• based on legal cultural knowledge compare and analyse central features in different legal cultures,

• analytically assess legal cultural particularities and their historical roots in order to avoid misunderstandings when communicating with lawyers from different jurisdictions and exploring extra-, inter- or supranational sources of law,

• describe and explain how to conduct legal comparison based on a hermeneutical model organised in 7 steps (COMPASS-formula),

• apply the Compass-formula to develop, assess and conduct comparative analysis on the macro, meso or micro-level.

• The course conveys knowledge related to: 1. the analytical models (ses above) and their function, 2. the foundations of law in Europe, 3. the history and development of the Norwegian legal culture and selected other legal cultures,

Skills

The student shall be able to

· Identify legal cultural entities and delimit them from related concepts such as legal system, legal family or legal tradition,

· Use the legal cultural model to analyse the interaction between the institutional and intellectual structures of legal cultures and in particular between the elements of the legal cultural model,

· Use the legal historical knowledge to explain the contemporary nature of a given legal culture,

· Explore and explain extent and consequences of changes in legal cultures by using the multilayer-model of law (legal sea),

· Compare central features of legal cultures contextually, that is identify similarities and differences and explain them contextually (comparative and/or historically)

· Conduct a legal comparison based on the hermeneutical process described by the COMPASS-formula,

· Discuss the merits and limitations of classifications such as the distinction between civil and common law, taxonomies base on the idea of legal families or legal traditions,

· Critical evaluate the concept of ‘mixed legal systems

General competence

The students shall have achieved the competence to

· Communicate and discuss legal issues with foreign lawyers based on an unbiased appreciation for legal cultural differences,

· Actively participate in debates concerning the impact of internationalisation and globalisation on national legal cultures,

· Write an academic paper in English and in concordance to scientific standards

· Work in international teams of lawyers,

· Present the results of legal cultural, comparative or historical studies orally to an audience of international lawyers in English,

· Develop research questions and designs for comparative and/or historical research projects

• Mandatory coursework: Assignment(s)
• Courseworks given: 1
• Courseworks required: 1
• Presence: Not required
• Comment:

• Form of assessment: Digital school assessment - Inspera
• Proportion: 100%
• Duration: 6 Hours
• Grouping: Individual
• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)
• Support material: Only general dictionary in mother tongue/Norwegian/English in paper version