France and Italy in The History of Law: Mutual Contributions and Osmosis*

Abstract

Mutual influences between France and Italy in the field of law have been constantly present in both directions since the middle ages. Some examples are briefly recalled: Feudal law, born in Carolingian kingdom and settled in written form in Lombardy two centuries later; the new legal science of the bolognese Glossators of the XII Century, early adopted and developed in new directions in Provence and Languedoc; the Orléans School of Law of the XIII Century, at the origins of the Commentators School flourished in Italy in the XIV Century; the Humanistic School of Law, whose approach Alciatus helped to establish in Bourges, reaching its climax in France in the XVI Century; the new doctrines of the French philosophes and of the milanese Beccaria in the XVIII Century; the French codification and administrative order estblished by Napoleon and largely adopted in Italy in the XIX Century. Grafts and osmosis are constant features of the european legal history.