Should We Teach (A Bit Of) U.S. Civil Procedure In the European Law Schools ?

Abstract

The occasion for this article moves from several suggestions emerging by the research and teaching work, mostly spent in the graduate courses in (Italian) civil procedure. Therefore, the perspective stems from a «continental» scholar and teacher; it would mean the traditional research focus on the country-specific area, usually taught in the same manner. As we can see, it generally happens all over European Law Schools. The main output, probably due to the Bocconi University of Milan, one of the leading international universities in Europe, has been first the Law students' interest in the common law procedural systems (the U.S. one, mostly). That interest was spontaneous, even if the lectures proposed not a few references to the common law judiciary system. However, that interest has been continuous, and it is still daily growing, even the students come entirely from the civil law (European) legal tradition. It has been as much spontaneous wondering about that, and quite quickly, the question has been one. Are there serious reasons why (a bit of) U.S. Civil Procedure should be taught in European Law Schools? The essay aims to explore the backgrounds of the positive response, and to some extent, to move toward a new season for the comparative civil procedure as well as an imperative mood of the legal education, even conscious of the limits set off by that traditional domestic area.