The Lectures in History of Italian Law held by Cesare Nani at the University of Turin. Research Questions

Abstract

The course of Italian Legal History carried out by Cesare Nani at the University of Turin from 1878 to 1899 can be reconstructed, in method and content, through the notes of the lessons collected by his students and collaborators. This contribution, which aims to present the first results of a research yet to be completed, outlines the main lines of this course and also frames Nani’s teaching activity in the context of his time. To this end, it traces the subsequent reforms introduced in university legislation after Italian unification, with specific attention to the provisions concerning the teaching of legal history and the effects that they had on the construction of the identity of the discipline and on the creation of suitable teaching tools.