Codifications: History, Structure and Problems

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The first part of this course is dedicated to history of codification: From the „corpus iuris civilis“ of antiquity to the „siete Partidas“ of medieval Spain to the so-called age of codification. The second part consists in the critical analysis of some important civil codes like the French "code civil", the "Austrian Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch", the "German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch" and the Chilean "código civil" against the of the "Kodeks cywilny". The third part will show the advantages and disadvantages of codifications especially in private law: to what extent codifications bring about legal certainty or are they rather political symbols? How can one judge their influence upon a national legal culture? This course aims at an unprejudiced discussion of one of the most fundamental features of modern legal systems.

The course programme consists in following topics:

I. Part History

1) Corpus iuris civilis: the mother of all codifications

2) The Siete Partidas: a hidden champion of the dark ages

3) The Hexabiblios and other little know medieval codifications

4) The age of codification: theory and resistance

II. Part: Examples

5) 18th century: The big Prussian book, the small Austrian book

6) A code like the man: Code Napoléon

7) The Partidas in a new guise: Bello’s Código civil de Chile

8) Incomprehensible Perfection: The German Civil Code

9) Common Sense: the Swiss Code

10) The best of all possible worlds: Kodeks cywilny

11) Recent codifications in Latin America (Argentina and Brazil)

12) Esperanto Codifications like the DCFR

III. Part: Criticism

13) What are codifications good for?

14) What is the future of codifications

15) Lean codifications? The praetor’s edict as a model

-H. Ankum, Was Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis a Codification?, in: Extravagantes – Scritti sparsi sul diritto romano (2007) 399 ff.

-Bernd Mertens: Gesetzgebungskunst im Zeitalter der Kodifikationen, Tübingen 2004

-J. F. Stagl: Kommentare in Lateinamerika: Behagen und Unbehagen in der Kodifikation, en: David Kästle-Lamparter, Nils Jansen y Reinhard Zimmermann (eds.) Juristische Kommentare: ein internationaler Vergleich, Mohr Siebeck, Tübigen 2020, pp. 123-150.

-A. Guzmán Brito, Andrés Bello Codificador, 2 vols, 1982.

The literature will be made accessible for the students by the lecturer.

Extend knowledge and comprehension of codifications as a fundamental feature of civil law systems.

The methods and criteria of student’s evaluation will be announced by the lecturer during the first classes.