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Sunday, April 29, 2012

MICHELE SPANO' ON LAW AND PHILOSOPHY

Dear all, next week we will start with two lectures on Law and Philosophy. Pay attention to the readings!

Lecture 1: Political Philosophy and Law: A Theoretical Introduction
In the first lecture I will try to sketch a broad theoretical framework on the relationships between (political) philosophy and law. Drawing on a scattered literature, I will propose to focus on legal procedures as a way to combine the most challenging theoretical description of power and political subjectivities with the sociological literature devoted to the so-called “judiciarization” of society. I will introduce some foucauldian concepts that make a different approach to law possible. I will consider law both as an ordering technique and as a transformative grammar and begin to introduce the foucauldian concepts of (neoliberal) governmentality and normative rationalities.

Lecture 2: Political Philosophy and Law: A Case
Drawing on the foucauldian concept of governmentality it is possible to set up an analysis of the great transformations undergone by the modern and western concept of representation. In a globalized world the politico-juridical vocabulary of modernity seems to be unusable to represent both emergent subjects and their claims. Class action taken as a juridical form is a powerful tool to rethink both the subjects and their claims beyond the horizon of modern politics. My aim is to show a way of politicizing legal procedures so that they can “produce” a subject capable to confront global challenges.

Suggested readings:
HUNT A. [2004], «Getting Marx and Foucault into Bed Together», in Journal of Law and Society, 31, 4, 2004, pp. 592-609.
KENNEDY D. [1995], «The Stakes of Law, or Hale and Foucault!», in Id., Sexy Dressing Etc: Essays on the Power and Politics of Cultural Identity, Harvard University Press, New Haven 1995, pp. 83-125.
LIANG L. [2005], «Porous Legalities and Avenues of Participation», in Sarai Reader 05, Sarai Media Lab, Delhi 2005, pp. 6-17.
MERRY S. E. [1995], «Resistance and the Cultural Power of the Law», in Law & Society Review, 29, 1, 1995, pp. 11-26.
WALBY K. [2007], «Contributions to a Post-Sovereigntist Understanding of Law: Foucault, Law as Governance, and Legal Pluralism», in Social & Legal Studies, 16, 4, 2007, pp. 551-571.

Michele Spanò's CV:
Michele Spanò (Rome, 1983) is Research Fellow at the Department of Law at the University of Turin. He is also Seminar Series Coordinator and co-convener with prof. Gunther Teubner of Foundations of Comparative Law at the International University College of Turin. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and a Ph.D. in European Legal Cultures at the EHESS in Paris. He has been Agent Chercheur at the CENJ-Yan Thomas at the EHESS in Paris, Visiting Scholar at the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York and Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for Historical Studies in Naples. He is member of the Editorial Board of ‘Politica & Società’ (il Mulino) and he writes for ‘il manifesto’ and ‘L’Indice dei libri del mese’. His research interests include the philosophy of Michel Foucault, governmentality, postcolonial studies and the relationship between legal actions and citizenship.

Friday, April 27, 2012

New competition: Find the good lawyer!

Dear all, this course is approaching the end and I have the impression that in the Law and Literature field the negative aspects of law a& lawyers seem to prevail. This can't be really said for the field of Law and Iconography and Law and Architecture. In the first one I think that we have both positive and negative interpretations of the law and of the lawyers while in architecture the image seems to be always positive. This is certainly linked to the fact that architecture, much more then the other "humanities", is conceived to represent power and its ideal representation of justice. Does this mean that the more the artist is free, the more the image of justice seems to be a negative one? I would like to ask you to post examples of good jurists (lawyers or judges or professors of law) in literature, cinema and iconography all over the world. I will start with the easiest example: Lawyer Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (which was also made into a very successful American movie). Someone of you could maybe try to describe the character? Both the novel and the movie are really nice.

6 Law and Literature: Pinocchio by Collodi

1) The group presented many different interpretations of "Pinocchio": religious, philosophical, psychoanalytic: do you think this is the real advantage of a literary work? Do you think that also a legal text can be understood under different points of view? 2) As we have already seen analysing Charles Dickens and his work, also in "Pinocchio" education appears as a fundamental issue during the age of the triumph of capitalism and national law states. Do you think that education is still a crucial issue in today's political and economical reality?

5 Law and Literature: Measure for Measure by Shakespeare

Dear all, these are the questions, which prof. Conte asked me to post after your presentations today: In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure there is a sharp distinction between strict application of law in court and a merciful exercise of authority. It is a very old opposition, since ancient Greek literature and Christian tradition. Do you think that such ancient exemples are still actual, in the perspective of Law and Literature? Or perhaps should a lawyer choose more recent literary works in order to understand the relationship between law and mercy in the today's culture? More in general: literary, iconographic, architectural witnesses of the perception of law by artists (and society) are useful to today's lawyers even if they are far back in time?

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Pictures of the Supreme Court

Dear all, these are some of the pictures taken today at the Supreme Court. I am very glad that most of you were there and I'm sure that we all learned something new. They are not in the right order but I think that you will recognize everything: the Aula Magna and the beautiful frescos (Justinian and the 2 Lady justice in particular), the Cortile d'onore, the Library, the statues of important jurists(I added the one of Cardinal De Luca). I also noticed that in one of the "tondi" we can find one of the most famous canon lawyers of all times: Gratianus. And of course the Monument to Cavour in the recently restored square. Thank you very much to Dr. Susanna Ranucci for being our competent guide.

Monday, April 23, 2012

IMPORTANT: VISIT TO THE COURT OF CASSATION AT 11:00

Dear all, I have just received the authorization for the visit to the Court of Cassation on the 26th of April and it will start at 11:00. The meeting will be therefore in Piazza dei Tribunali (Lungotevere) at the entrance of the Court at 10:45. See you there

Sunday, April 22, 2012

4 Law and architecture in totalitarianism: Focus on Italy, China and Germany

Can you think of other examples of law courts or buildings related to law in a totalitarian political context? Try to insert links to relevant images

Thursday, April 19, 2012

3 Law and Achitecture from England to Rome

In the comparison between England and Italy, do you think that architecture can teach us something about the different legal systems? And about the education of lawyers?

2 Charles Dickens between legal and social issues

Dickens concerned a lot for the legal system shaping economy and society but he was also very much interested in education. Do you think there is a connection between the two issues?

Questions: 1 Law and Architecture: A Comparison

Dear all,
first of all, I would like to congratulate the groups that yesterday presented their researches: I know that there wasn't much time but you did a good job indeed. Prof. Conte asked me to post a question for all of the 3 topics proposed yesterday, in order to give you the opportunity to comment on the blog. I will start here with the first one.

In the comparison proposed by your collegues, 3 architectural styles emerged as particularly influencial in the framework of the courts of justice buildings: neo-classical, neo-gothic and modern.
Which concept do you associate to each of these styles?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Human Rights at Roma3


Dear all,
on Monday April 23rd at 5:30 pm in the Sala del Consiglio of the Law Faculty (Via Ostiense 161, 1st floor), Prof. Roland Adjovi will give a lecture on "Universality of Human Rights: A view from Africa". The lecture is open to all people interested!

Roland Adjovi is an international lawyer from Benin with extensive experience in the international criminal tribunals. He served as legal officer and thereafter Senior legal officer for 6 years, assisting the judges to manage pretrial matters, procedure, judgement drafting and the referral cases. He also wooed at the international criminal court. He currently couples a legal practice with his teaching: he is the lead counsel representing Rev Mtikila before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

Thursday, April 12, 2012

26th April 2012: Visit to the Court of Cassation (confirmation)

Dear all,
as you know, on the 26th of April we are going to visit the Court of Cassation. I need a list of all the people interested to come. I will write below the names of the students that have already confirmed. If you want to add your name, write a comment as soon as possible. By the way, you can also bring a friend but I need the names (do not exagerate).
The appointment will be in front of the Court of Cassation in Piazza Cavour at 9:45.

This is the provisional list:
1. Bussoletti Ludovica
2. Cencelli Chiara
3. Cordeschi Ilaria
4. Droege Rudolf
5. Fanelli Lorenzo
6. Ferrauti Chiara
7. Forzano Elena
8. Frattini Carlotta
9. Gaudino Benedetto Loris
10. Kisielewska Sophia
11. Koch Kai
12.
13. Maciariello Lorenzo
14. Masini Lavinia
15. Micarelli Serena
16. Mieli Andrea David
17. Mieli Micol
18. Norzi Carlo Alberto
19. Passeri Leoni Luca
20. Pedata Martina
21. Pizzari Lucia
22. Scioli Alessandro
23. Sebastiani Martina
24. Segreto Chiara
25. Stefanini Beatrice
26. Veroheven Clement
27. Woeste Carolin
28. D'Alpa Grazia
29. Cesario Elena
30. Musto Costanza
31. Tartaglione Maria Ludovica
32. Saponara Marianna

(+ me :-))

MIDTERM EXAM: INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS

Dear all,
this post is just to sum up what we have already said during our classes. I'll try to give all possible information again. Some of you asked me if I want from you also a paper or a bibliography: let's say that this is up to you. You will be evaluated only on the basis of the presentation. Nevertheless, there are several things you could add:
1) A handout, to give to all of us during your presentation (a list of readings, an outline, etc.). Only in this case it will be considered as part of a presentation. Just think of how professors usually present their lectures.
2) A bibliography or even a paper (like an article) will be preserved and taken into account during your oral exam at the very end of the course. That means that it won't be part of the evaluation of the midterm.

This is the schedule of the Midterm exam (the titles are provisional):

Wed. 18th April 2012:
1) Law and architecture: A comparison (Matthias Andres, Ludovica Bussoletti, Chiara Cencelli, Elena Cesario, Ilaria Cordeschi)
2) Law and literature: Dickens (Grazia D'Alpa, Rudolf Droege, Lorenzo Fanelli, Chiara Ferrauti, Elena Forzano)

Thur. 19th April: NO CLASS

Fri. 20th April:
3) Law and architecture & totalitarianism (Yang Qingya, Florian Markus Rheinbay, Alessandro Scioli, Micol Mieli)
4) Law and literature: Dickens (Martina Sebastiani, Beatrice Stefanini, Andrea David Milei, Vitiello Vania, Carolin Woeste)

Wed. 25th April: NO CLASS (Festa della liberazione)

Thur. 26th April: Visit to the Court of Cassation

Fri. 27th April:
5) Law and architecture in England (Carlotta Frattini, Benedetto Loris Gaudino, Edoardo Gianni, Sophia Kisielewska, Kai Koch)
6) Law and literature: "Measure for measure" (Pietro La Rosa, Lucio Maria Lanzetti, Lorenzo Maciariello, Lavinia Masini, Serena Micarelli)
7) Law and literature: "Pinocchio" (Carlo Alberto Norzi, Luca Passeri Leoni, Martina Pedata, Lucia Pizzari, Clement Veroheven)

You will have 30 minutes time for each presentation.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

GARY WATT ON LAW AND ICONOGRAPHY/LITERATURE


Dear all,
next week we will have 3 very intence lectures on law and iconography and law and literature. You can find below a very detailed outline of the lectures. As you will see, prof. Watt asks you to prepare before his classes reading texts, choosing pictures, thinking about metaphors. I am sure you will enjoy this week a lot!

Seminar One:
Wednesday 11th April 2012

“Foundations: architectural metaphors of law and society”


“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect”.
Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering (1815)

“In that jurisdiction precedes law, in that it marks the point of entry into the juridical sphere and speech, it has to be visible in advance of utterance and hence must be a property of communal space, of the architecture of the institution, of context and vestment that can be apprehended prior to any discursive intervention in the name of legality.” Peter Goodrich, “Visive Powers: Colours, Trees and Genres of Jurisdiction” (2008) 2(2) Law and Humanities 213–231, 214.

“Civilisations cannot be built mechanistically – there must be art as well as science. Where the stones of law are stubborn we must turn to the art of equity. If law is the mason’s art of producing rectilinear stones from the bedrock of nature, equity is the sculptor’s art of revealing the human form from within the rectilinear stone. As the great American jurist, Judge Learned Hand, once said: ‘the work of a judge is an art…[i]t is what a poet does, it is what a sculptor does’” G Watt, Equity Stirring: The Story of Justice Beyond the Law (2009)

“law matters because of death and time and our care for others. Like architecture or language, it is part of the work of cultures which seeks to reach across time, and beyond life”
Desmond Manderson, ‘Desert Island Discs (Ten reveries on pedagogy in law and the humanities)’ (2008) 2(2) Law and Humanities 255–270, 270.

Preparation:
Identify an architectural metaphor employed in the legal language of Italy or elsewhere – and come prepared to discuss it. (For a general introduction to the dominance of metaphors in US legal language, read Bernard J. Hibbitts, “Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality, and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse”, 16 Cardozo L. Rev. 229 (1994) (accessible at http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/meta_con.htm))


Seminar Outline:
We will consider the significance to legal language of the architectural metaphors, including the metaphors of “the rule” and “the level ground”. We will also critically examine the following two quotes which use architectural metaphors to explain “equity”:

“The formall cause of Equity is the matching and levelling of facts falling out, and the circumstances thereof, with the rules of the Law, as buildings are framed to carpenters lines and squares...Not unfitly is Equity termed the rule of manners: for as by a rule the faults of a building are so discovered, so doth equity judge aright, both of the written law, and also of all mens actions and behaviours: and therefore such as are ministers of Justice, apply and frame their judgments, after the square and rule of good and legal, that is to say, of God’s Law, and the Lawes of Nature”
William West, Symboleography (1593)


“When the law speaks universally, then, and a case arises on it which is not covered by the universal statement, then it is right, where the legislator fails us and has erred by oversimplicity, to correct the omission-to say what the legislator himself would have said had he been present, and would have put into his law if he had known. Hence the equitable is just, and better than one kind of justice-not better than absolute justice but better than the error that arises from the absoluteness of the statement. And this is the nature of the equitable, a correction of law where it is defective owing to its universality. In fact this is the reason why all things are not determined by law, that about some things it is impossible to lay down a law, so that a decree is needed. For when the thing is indefinite the rule also is indefinite, like the leaden rule used in making the Lesbian moulding; the rule adapts itself to the shape of the stone and is not rigid, and so too the decree is adapted to the facts.”
Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, Book V chapter 10


Seminar Two
Thursday 12th April 2012
“Honoré Daumier and the Moving Image of Law”

“a painter so mighty, that no terms can exaggerate the greatness of his importance”.
- Julius Meier-Graefe (Florence Simmonds, trans.)

“Dictus et Amphion, Thebanae conditor arcis,
Saxa movere sono testudinis, et prece blanda
Ducere quo vellet. Fuit haec sapientia quondam,
Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis…leges incidere lingo”.
Horace, De Arte Poetica

[Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said to give the stones motion
with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them -whithersoever
he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed
wisdom of yore, to distinguish the public from private weal,
things sacred from things profane…to engrave laws on tables of wood.]

This seminar is based around an annotated slideshow of the life and art of Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) is an exploration of the artist’s remarkable power to reveal human motivations and to move his viewers through images which for the most part were lithographic caricatures and therefore quite literally “set in stone”. Focusing on his representation of the legal profession, we discover that Daumier’s project was to present the theatrical show of law – complete with chiaroscuro lighting, costume, stage, props, gestural rhetoric and, most significant of all, a director’s insight into what motivates the actors.

Preparation:
• Look up the subject of “lawyers” at http://dcoll.brandeis.edu/handle/10192/5/browse?type=subject
• Bring a picture (by any artist) demonstrating chiaroscuro and be prepared to discuss its symbolic significance to the law.
• Read the extract from the editorial to (2008) 3(1) Law and Humanities (set out below).


Seminar Outline: We will discuss the significance of the chiaroscuro images you have found, and some others that I will bring to the seminar. Are you familiar with the phrases “black letter law” and “bright line rule”? Is anything in nature black and white? Is the law? Be prepared to produce your own chiaroscuro study of the law – materials will be supplied!

Gary Watt on law, architecture and the art of chiaroscuro in the work of Honoré Daumier, from the Editorial to 3(1) Law and Humanities (2008):
“Daumier’s work exhibits a complete mastery of composition, line, tone and – when used, which was relatively seldom – colour. A distinctive feature of much of his work is the bold use of chiaroscuro (or clair-obscur), which is the use of dark shadow and bright light to produce dramatic tonal contrast. This feature is the foundation for many of his greatest oil paintings - including Le Lutteur (1852-53); Les Deux Avocats (1855-7); L’Homme à la corde (1858-60); La Laveuse (1860-1) and Crispin et Scapin (1863-5) – and, of course, it is an almost universal feature of his caricatures, which were for the most part executed exclusively in black-and-white monochrome – or as we might term it nowadays, “greyscale”. One can attribute Daumier’s fascination with lawyers to many sources – including the fact that he was employed (at the age of twelve or thirteen) to act as a runner for a notary or bailiff in Paris and the fact that, around the same time, his father is said to have been a frequent visitor to the courts on account of his troubled business affairs – but whatever captured his artistic imagination, it was surely the singular contrast between lawyers’ white collars and black robes that captivated his artistic eye. In the introduction to the English language publication of Les Gens de Justice, Julien Cain notes that “Daumier saw this ‘magic lantern of black figures’ performed before his very eyes” (Les Gens de Justice (New York: Tudor Publishing, 1959) page 13). As for the deeply sardonic critique of lawyers that emerges through his work, that may be attributable to his republican – essentially revolutionary – political outlook, and to the fact that he was imprisoned in his early twenties for his caricature Gargantua (1831). This caricature depicts the last king to rule in France - Louis-Philippe I, so-called “King of the French” – seated on a commode throne continually “issuing” favours whilst being continually fed by the bourgeoisie....
Daumier deserves his place in the pantheon of Law and Humanities, because he exemplifies the central aim of the whole project – which is to cast external scholarly or artistic illumination upon law and lawyers. But do Daumier’s caricatures cast too bright a light? Is his clair too brilliant, with the result that his obscur is too dark, too cynical? We do not think so. If there is an extremism to Daumier’s caricatures, it is attributable to a great extent to the somewhat journalist context in which those works appeared. There was also the need to ensure that the work was attractive to the editors and to the paying public. Surprising as it may seem to us, Daumier sometimes struggled to have certain pieces accepted – even, and perhaps especially, towards the end of his career. Despite this, the passionate humanity of the man is clear from his caricatures – his depiction of the lawyer leaving court with a tearful widow and her “orphan” child achieves pity and avoids sentimentality. The picture is so well drawn, the legend accompanying it in Les Gens de Justice is otiose: “Vous avez perdu votre procès c'est vrai ..... mais vous avez du éprouver bien du plaisir à m’entendre plaider”. This caricature appears as plate number 35 in Les Gens de Justice (see Stone number 1371: www.daumier.org), and to conclude we will briefly consider the plate that immediately follows it. Plate 36 (Stone number 1372: www.daumier.org) depicts the grand staircase leading up to the Palais de Justice, which still stands at the heart of Paris on the Île de la Cité. Walking down the staircase are two lawyers, a few steps apart, each nursing a bundle of documents under his left arm. Each lawyer is looking straight ahead in full-frontal profile; faces devoid of passion, almost without expression – most un-Daumier-like. Their black robes drop straight, their white official scarves – an elongated version of what English barristers call “tabs” - hang from their collars rigidly perpendicular, as if starched. The plate carries the legend “Grand escalier du Palais de justice. Vue de faces”. The humour is as understated as was the pathos of the previous plate. The reference is architectural: here, in the language of architects, is a “front profile of the grand staircase”, and here – in the shape of lawyers – are two cold and rigid men of stone. The fact that the plate is itself a lithograph– and was therefore set in stone – adds a further dimension to the metaphor...Plate 36 was apparently based on an earlier wood engraving (1836), which is a pleasing metaphor for the way in which the law begins in nature before it is set in stone, but the evolution of the work does not end there. Daumier revisited the image around 1865 in the form of a mixed media work (charcoal, soft pencil, ink, watercolour and gouache on paper). The later version is entitled Le Grand escalier du Palais de justice. The pronoun “le” has been added, and the concluding clause “Vue de faces” has been removed. Accordingly, there is, on this occasion, no attempt to repeat the architectural joke. The composition of the picture broadly corresponds to the earlier lithograph, but there are significant differences. There is only one lawyer walking down the stairs, but that is not especially significant. What is significant is the fact that the lawyer is clearly moving – his hat is soft and sitting somewhat askew, his robes are flowing, his white scarf is ruffled and shifting and his feet can be seen stepping down the stairs, whereas before we did not see them. And there, on his chest, near his heart, is the smallest square of red – the ribbon of la Légion d’honneur. Apart from this small patch of red, the picture is grey or thinly washed in pale pink and yellow. There is hope in this image. The stone cold lawyer has moved. The colourless lawyer has a spark of passion in his heart. His face is still aloof but he is moving, and he is walking down from his lofty place, and he might just be walking towards humanity”.


Seminar Three
Friday 13th April 2012
Law, Performance and the Sign of Blood

Preparation:
• Please bring a quotation from any theatrical drama (in any language and of any era) in which the physical stain of blood is linked to a legal theme.
• Read Act 3 scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar – especially Antony’s funeral oration in the Roman forum. (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/julius_caesar.3.2.html)

Seminar Outline:
We will consider how blood is used in theatre to signify legal crisis, especially where the conflict is between the law of state and the laws of nature and the divine. I will demonstrate this through attention to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Sophocles’ Antigone. In Shakespeare’s play, Brutus appears, at first, to believe in a law of blood that is deeper than the law of the State, but his appeal to Roman blood is actually devoted to the political idea of Rome rather than to any personal notion of kinship. He is the dramatic descendant of King Creon in Sophocles’ Antigone, who placed the laws of the polis (the “city-State”) above any bond of familial blood. Brutus confirms that he would prefer to avoid bloodshed if there were any way to slay the spirit of Caesar, but alas “In the spirit of man there is no blood” and “Caesar must bleed for it!” (2.1.168-171). Brutus calls the conspirators to “dismember” Caesar; to cut him down to size. He acknowledges that he is plotting a performance for which there must be blood - for the issue of blood is inevitable where laws of family and friendship are made to conform to the laws of State; as Brutus acknowledges (in retrospect): “Did not great Julius bleed for Justice’s sake?” (4.3.21). In his oration at Caesar’s funeral, Mark Antony appropriates Brutus’ rhetoric of blood and turns it against him. At the climax of his speech, just before he reveals Caesar’s bloody corpse, he surveys Caesar’s bloody clothing wound by wound:



“Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this, the well-belovèd Brutus stabbed,
And as he plucked his cursèd steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no,
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel, -
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. -
This was the most unkindest cut of all.” (3.2.171-180)

Antony appeals to higher laws than the law of the State. He appeals to the law of blood and the law of the gods. The appeal to the gods is obvious. The appeal to the law of blood is more subtle. Antony accuses Brutus of putting ephemeral matters of State before a kindred duty to Caesar, who was like a father to him. The repeated reference to Brutus’ “unkindness” is designed to emphasise his disobedience to the law of kindred blood. The description “most unkindest” is effective as an impassioned tortologous double-superlative, but it makes most sense if we understand “unkindest” to mean “not the sort of thing that should occur between kin”. Sophocles’ Antigone likewise considers the perpetual and unalterable laws of life, death and blood to be more fundamental than temporary laws of State and to be more fundamental, even, than laws governing the legal status of marriage:

“Had I had children or their father dead,
I’d let them moulder. I should not have chosen
In such a case to cross the State’s decree.
What is the law that lies behind these words?
One husband gone, I might have found another,
or a child from a new man in first child's place,
but with my parents hid away in death,
no brother, ever, could spring up for me.
Such was the law by which I honoured you.” (900-920)


Prof. Watt's CV

Gary Watt (b. 1969) is a graduate of New College, Oxford University, and a qualified Solicitor (non-practising). He is currently an Associate Professor and Reader in Law at the University of Warwick, having joined Warwick Law School in 1999. Since 2005 he has also been a visiting professor in comparative common law at the Université René Descartes (Paris 5) and since 2004 he has been one of the editors of the Mortgage group in the Project for a Common Core of European Private Law based at the Università di Trento. Gary is a passionate advocate for scholarship and teaching in the various fields of law and humanities and is one of the two founding editors of Law and Humanities (Oxford, Hart publishing) - the first UK-based journal dedicated to the examination of law by the lights of humanities’ disciplines. He is the co-editor of Shakespeare and the Law (Oxford, Hart publishing, 2008) and the author of numerous books, chapters and articles, including Trusts and Equity (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003) (currently in 3rd edition, 2008) and a forthcoming book on law and literature: Equity Stirring: The Story of Justice Beyond Law (Oxford, Hart publishing, 2009). He has also co-written for BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears strand with ‘Prix Italia’ winner Antony Pitts. Gary’s enthusiasm for his subjects (and for teaching them) has led to invitations to deliver lectures and seminars in places as diverse as Hong Kong, the US, Italy, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Gary was named UK “Law Teacher of the Year” in 2009.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

EASTER BREAK

Dear all,
the Easter break will last from the 5th to the 9th April. That means that we will have one class on the 4th and then we will start again on the 11th with prof. Gary Watt!

STEFANIA GIALDRONI ON LAW AND ARCHITECTURE


Dear all,
next week we are going to have only one class before the Easter break (on Wednesday, April 4th) on the meaning and function of the Italian Court of Cassation's building, better known to the people of Rome as "il Palazzaccio".

Temple of Justice or "Palazzaccio"? Giuseppe Zanardelli's Idea of Justice in Unified Italy

Reading:

Terry Rossi Kirk, The Politicization of the Landscape of Roma Capitale and the Symbolic Role of the Palazzo di Giustizia, in "Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée", 109.1 (2006), pp. 89-114.