PRIVATE LAW 21-02-2022
TYPES OF LAW
Law can do different things:
• Provide order
• Provide penalties
• Settle disputes
• Provide for our general safety
• Protect rights of citizens
Each legal order deals with a different state. Every state as a legal system with categories and aims. There
are different levels in a legal order that are linked to the different actors involved; a legal order must be
built on some fundamental rules that establish the general characteristic of the legal system (ex: there is a
constitution or not?). There are two levels that are a sort of general category that establish rule that must
be respected by all the organs of the state in their relationship:
• VERTICAL LEVEL: a first category that provide an order and establish the rules between the
bureaucratic apparatus of the state and the private citizen. Each state is sovereign but has the
same international duties and rights.
• HORIZONTAL LEVEL: the rules for the relationship between different states (rules provided by
international law), or region within a state (constitutional law; ex: in USA we have federation of
states linked together by a constitution), between citizens (private law, criminal law all the aspect
of the life of a person are managed by law since the birth)
Some categories establish the general rules of the entire legal order, other provide penalties, other rules
settle disputes between private citizen, so rules to protect the rights of the citizen from the attacks that can
arrive from other citizens.
The broadest categories of law are:
A) INTERNATIONAL LAWS: linked to the relationships between different states
B) DOMESTIC LAW: the law of a single legal order or state.
A) INTERNATIONAL LAW
Includes laws that govern independent nations in their relationships with one another:
• created by customs (first source of international law)
• Nations sign treaties and are considered binding as law between the parties who signed the treaty,
they a create a contract (extradition, NATO, and NAFTA) (second source of international law)
• Some organizations have international legal status (UN, UE, NATO and international courts), these
organizations have more power than a single national state
• Difficult to enforce international law --> International law is difficult because there’s no unique
general legal order, but there are several nationals’ legal orders at the same level, so if two states
stipulate a treaty and one of them doesn’t respect the treaty they will have sanctions given by the
international community, so not by a single superior entity. So, there is a difficulty to enforce
international law because there’s not a coercive power who can impose itself over other nations.
B) DOMESTIC LAW
Domestic law is the law that governs the activities within nation’s borders. It deals with all the citizens and
all the persons that are in specified territories controlled by a political authority. Usually, the basic
assumption is that there is a more important and general law, the constitution, that can exist without any
,specific legal chart (like the English constitution), so all the rules that are applied to the citizens belonging to
the territories are domestic laws and all the persons that are within a country are subjected to those
national laws.
Domestic law is divided into:
• Substantive law= law that defines the rights, duties and obligations of citizens and governments
(ex: rights to own and protect property, entering contracts, and the rules of the road)
• Procedural law= law that prescribes the methods of enforcing the rights and obligations of
substantive law:
ensures that all citizens are treated fairly
ensures that neither the police nor the courts act arbitrarily
examples include proper procedures to gather evidence, requirements for lawful evidence,
requirements for lawful arrest and trial procedure.
This is a way of categorizing the law, so for example if I want to stipulate a contract, I have to follow some
rules, so I have to apply substantive law. But if we have to say if a contract is valid or not, we go before a
judge and we have to apply procedural law: substantive and procedural are only different aspect of the law.
The constitution is the highest law in a state and there are substantive rules but also procedural, so for ex.
there is a list of rights of the citizens (political, civil, economics ecc.ecc.), but there are also rules that govern
the procedure of the state.
To recapitulate: the law that prescribes this method of enforcing the rights and obligations is called
substantive, while the main characteristic of procedural law is that a procedure must be equal for all
citizens, so these rules must be applied for all citizens and possible cases/ struggle. The other aim of
procedural law is to protect the citizen not only from the other citizen but also from an arbitrary decision
from the state.
DIVISIONS OF SUBSTANTIVE LAW
Is divided into:
1. Public law
2. Private law.
1. PUBLIC LAW
The public law is a complex set of relationship between the citizens and the state, it’s divided in:
• Constitutional law: body of law dealing with the distribution and exercise of the powers of the
state:
overrides all other laws
limits the powers of the state
divides power
courts interpret these laws to ensure all other are “constitutional”.
• Administrative law: law related to the relationship between people and government departments,
boards and agencies (ex. worker’s compensation, social assistance)
• Criminal law: law that identifies crimes and punishments as described in the code
prohibit the behavior that harm others
crimes against society
These different categories have a thing in common: they all deal with the relationship between the citizens
and the state.
,2. PRIVATE LAW
Private law is the law of the relationships among private citizens, and among individuals and organizations.
An individual person has a lot of relationships in his everyday life, it has an interest in the economic activity,
or it can also have interest in private personal life, its divided in:
• tort law: (also known as civil injuries) a branch of civil law that holds persons or private
organizations responsible for damage they cause another person as a result of an accident or
deliberate action.
• contract law
• family law
• property law
• wills and estate
• employment law
Private law is also known as civil or case law, it excludes government organization, it regulates conduct and
compensates who have been harmed by the wrongful actions of others and it refers to torts (civil injuries),
contracts, property, and family law (the most important)
22-02-2022
Private law has some characteristic in civil law countries and other in common law countries:
• tort law example: there is a traffic accident
In common law countries is called tort law. There, as there’s no code, we will have to find
the rules that can resolve the issue in another source of the law, probably in the case law,
or in some specific statute provided by the parliament
In civil law countries is called civil liability, the topic is the same, but the characteristics are
different, when we have to analyse tort law for civil liability, we have to know that solution
and technical method can change but the problem is the same. In civil law we have to
search the rule in the code to resolve that specific situation
So, the first problem when we have to confront different legal system we have to think about where we can
find the rules: for example in contract law:
In common law countries the rule for contract law can be found in previous cases, so in
case law
In civil law countries the rules for contract law can be found in the civil code
The same thing is valid also for the other categories of private laws: property law is the base of common
law, while for civil law it seems to have quite strange rules.
There is of course also the language problem, because the legal English word “contract” has not the same
meaning of the Italian word “contratto”, in English private law is also called “civil law” that it has not the
same meaning of “diritto civile”.
N.B. Not only private citizens are involved in the rules of private law, but also the organizations as the
associations, corporations ecc.ecc.
TYPES OF PRIVATE LAW
, • TORT LAW: A branch of civil law that holds persons or private organizations responsible for
damage they cause another person because of an accident or deliberate action. Here there is an
issue of damages, for that reason we talk about civil liability, while, when there is a crime, we are
talking about criminal liability, even if the case it the same. Ex: if a citizen tries to kill another
citizen, we must follow rules provided by criminal law because is a crime against the state as the
state cannot accept such thing, but at the same time we are talking about a person damaging
another person, so we can also use civil law.
• CONTRACT LAW: a branch of private law that provides rules regarding agreements between
people and businesses. An agreement with consent between two persons can create a contract
legally binding for both, so we know there are requirements to create a contract between people
or businesses, for example also the form of the contract is fundamental and it’s different for civil
and common law, they use different doctrines because they start from different legal assumptions.
• FAMILY LAW: deals with various aspects of family life including marriage, property division upon
separation and child custody. The concept of family now it’s not well defined, and it’s not the same
all over the world, there are differences on how it’s conceived in different countries and traditions.
So, in the private life of families there are rules.
• WILLS AND ESTATES (ESTATE LAW): deals with divisions of property after death including if a
person dies without having a will.
• PROPERTY LAW: Governs ownership and rights in property including the buying and selling of real
estate. Possession is a question of fact while property needs a legal title, so I can possess
something, but I cannot have the property of the thing because it belongs to somebody else.
• EMPLOYMENT LAW: governs employer/employee relations including minimum age a person can
work, restricting the number of hours required to work, and specifying the minimum wage. There
are two parts very different one with the other, for example we can understand that there is a
difference of economic power between an employer like Amazon and an Amazon employee, so
there is the need of someone to establish the regulation of these aspects (so the minimum wage,
working hours ecc.ecc.). It’s strictly linked with the general law of contract but has also some
specifics that must be studied, because these contracts are specific and particular types of
contracts.
CONTRACT LAW PRELIMINARY (CONSIDERATIONS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES)
We live in a capitalist economy, in which the market is the main point of our lives. In the market there are
exchanges between common citizen, businesses, and corporations of goods in order to have a profit, and
this exchange is regulated by the Italian code, in which is written that the freedom and the possibility to do
economic transactions is a right of everybody.
Market economy actors:
• Consumers = private individual that uses products provided by others
• Sellers= an intermediate actor between consumers an producers
• Producers
• Companies
• Statute body= governmental bodies that operate in the market, they are public actors who
operate in the market.
TYPES OF LAW
Law can do different things:
• Provide order
• Provide penalties
• Settle disputes
• Provide for our general safety
• Protect rights of citizens
Each legal order deals with a different state. Every state as a legal system with categories and aims. There
are different levels in a legal order that are linked to the different actors involved; a legal order must be
built on some fundamental rules that establish the general characteristic of the legal system (ex: there is a
constitution or not?). There are two levels that are a sort of general category that establish rule that must
be respected by all the organs of the state in their relationship:
• VERTICAL LEVEL: a first category that provide an order and establish the rules between the
bureaucratic apparatus of the state and the private citizen. Each state is sovereign but has the
same international duties and rights.
• HORIZONTAL LEVEL: the rules for the relationship between different states (rules provided by
international law), or region within a state (constitutional law; ex: in USA we have federation of
states linked together by a constitution), between citizens (private law, criminal law all the aspect
of the life of a person are managed by law since the birth)
Some categories establish the general rules of the entire legal order, other provide penalties, other rules
settle disputes between private citizen, so rules to protect the rights of the citizen from the attacks that can
arrive from other citizens.
The broadest categories of law are:
A) INTERNATIONAL LAWS: linked to the relationships between different states
B) DOMESTIC LAW: the law of a single legal order or state.
A) INTERNATIONAL LAW
Includes laws that govern independent nations in their relationships with one another:
• created by customs (first source of international law)
• Nations sign treaties and are considered binding as law between the parties who signed the treaty,
they a create a contract (extradition, NATO, and NAFTA) (second source of international law)
• Some organizations have international legal status (UN, UE, NATO and international courts), these
organizations have more power than a single national state
• Difficult to enforce international law --> International law is difficult because there’s no unique
general legal order, but there are several nationals’ legal orders at the same level, so if two states
stipulate a treaty and one of them doesn’t respect the treaty they will have sanctions given by the
international community, so not by a single superior entity. So, there is a difficulty to enforce
international law because there’s not a coercive power who can impose itself over other nations.
B) DOMESTIC LAW
Domestic law is the law that governs the activities within nation’s borders. It deals with all the citizens and
all the persons that are in specified territories controlled by a political authority. Usually, the basic
assumption is that there is a more important and general law, the constitution, that can exist without any
,specific legal chart (like the English constitution), so all the rules that are applied to the citizens belonging to
the territories are domestic laws and all the persons that are within a country are subjected to those
national laws.
Domestic law is divided into:
• Substantive law= law that defines the rights, duties and obligations of citizens and governments
(ex: rights to own and protect property, entering contracts, and the rules of the road)
• Procedural law= law that prescribes the methods of enforcing the rights and obligations of
substantive law:
ensures that all citizens are treated fairly
ensures that neither the police nor the courts act arbitrarily
examples include proper procedures to gather evidence, requirements for lawful evidence,
requirements for lawful arrest and trial procedure.
This is a way of categorizing the law, so for example if I want to stipulate a contract, I have to follow some
rules, so I have to apply substantive law. But if we have to say if a contract is valid or not, we go before a
judge and we have to apply procedural law: substantive and procedural are only different aspect of the law.
The constitution is the highest law in a state and there are substantive rules but also procedural, so for ex.
there is a list of rights of the citizens (political, civil, economics ecc.ecc.), but there are also rules that govern
the procedure of the state.
To recapitulate: the law that prescribes this method of enforcing the rights and obligations is called
substantive, while the main characteristic of procedural law is that a procedure must be equal for all
citizens, so these rules must be applied for all citizens and possible cases/ struggle. The other aim of
procedural law is to protect the citizen not only from the other citizen but also from an arbitrary decision
from the state.
DIVISIONS OF SUBSTANTIVE LAW
Is divided into:
1. Public law
2. Private law.
1. PUBLIC LAW
The public law is a complex set of relationship between the citizens and the state, it’s divided in:
• Constitutional law: body of law dealing with the distribution and exercise of the powers of the
state:
overrides all other laws
limits the powers of the state
divides power
courts interpret these laws to ensure all other are “constitutional”.
• Administrative law: law related to the relationship between people and government departments,
boards and agencies (ex. worker’s compensation, social assistance)
• Criminal law: law that identifies crimes and punishments as described in the code
prohibit the behavior that harm others
crimes against society
These different categories have a thing in common: they all deal with the relationship between the citizens
and the state.
,2. PRIVATE LAW
Private law is the law of the relationships among private citizens, and among individuals and organizations.
An individual person has a lot of relationships in his everyday life, it has an interest in the economic activity,
or it can also have interest in private personal life, its divided in:
• tort law: (also known as civil injuries) a branch of civil law that holds persons or private
organizations responsible for damage they cause another person as a result of an accident or
deliberate action.
• contract law
• family law
• property law
• wills and estate
• employment law
Private law is also known as civil or case law, it excludes government organization, it regulates conduct and
compensates who have been harmed by the wrongful actions of others and it refers to torts (civil injuries),
contracts, property, and family law (the most important)
22-02-2022
Private law has some characteristic in civil law countries and other in common law countries:
• tort law example: there is a traffic accident
In common law countries is called tort law. There, as there’s no code, we will have to find
the rules that can resolve the issue in another source of the law, probably in the case law,
or in some specific statute provided by the parliament
In civil law countries is called civil liability, the topic is the same, but the characteristics are
different, when we have to analyse tort law for civil liability, we have to know that solution
and technical method can change but the problem is the same. In civil law we have to
search the rule in the code to resolve that specific situation
So, the first problem when we have to confront different legal system we have to think about where we can
find the rules: for example in contract law:
In common law countries the rule for contract law can be found in previous cases, so in
case law
In civil law countries the rules for contract law can be found in the civil code
The same thing is valid also for the other categories of private laws: property law is the base of common
law, while for civil law it seems to have quite strange rules.
There is of course also the language problem, because the legal English word “contract” has not the same
meaning of the Italian word “contratto”, in English private law is also called “civil law” that it has not the
same meaning of “diritto civile”.
N.B. Not only private citizens are involved in the rules of private law, but also the organizations as the
associations, corporations ecc.ecc.
TYPES OF PRIVATE LAW
, • TORT LAW: A branch of civil law that holds persons or private organizations responsible for
damage they cause another person because of an accident or deliberate action. Here there is an
issue of damages, for that reason we talk about civil liability, while, when there is a crime, we are
talking about criminal liability, even if the case it the same. Ex: if a citizen tries to kill another
citizen, we must follow rules provided by criminal law because is a crime against the state as the
state cannot accept such thing, but at the same time we are talking about a person damaging
another person, so we can also use civil law.
• CONTRACT LAW: a branch of private law that provides rules regarding agreements between
people and businesses. An agreement with consent between two persons can create a contract
legally binding for both, so we know there are requirements to create a contract between people
or businesses, for example also the form of the contract is fundamental and it’s different for civil
and common law, they use different doctrines because they start from different legal assumptions.
• FAMILY LAW: deals with various aspects of family life including marriage, property division upon
separation and child custody. The concept of family now it’s not well defined, and it’s not the same
all over the world, there are differences on how it’s conceived in different countries and traditions.
So, in the private life of families there are rules.
• WILLS AND ESTATES (ESTATE LAW): deals with divisions of property after death including if a
person dies without having a will.
• PROPERTY LAW: Governs ownership and rights in property including the buying and selling of real
estate. Possession is a question of fact while property needs a legal title, so I can possess
something, but I cannot have the property of the thing because it belongs to somebody else.
• EMPLOYMENT LAW: governs employer/employee relations including minimum age a person can
work, restricting the number of hours required to work, and specifying the minimum wage. There
are two parts very different one with the other, for example we can understand that there is a
difference of economic power between an employer like Amazon and an Amazon employee, so
there is the need of someone to establish the regulation of these aspects (so the minimum wage,
working hours ecc.ecc.). It’s strictly linked with the general law of contract but has also some
specifics that must be studied, because these contracts are specific and particular types of
contracts.
CONTRACT LAW PRELIMINARY (CONSIDERATIONS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES)
We live in a capitalist economy, in which the market is the main point of our lives. In the market there are
exchanges between common citizen, businesses, and corporations of goods in order to have a profit, and
this exchange is regulated by the Italian code, in which is written that the freedom and the possibility to do
economic transactions is a right of everybody.
Market economy actors:
• Consumers = private individual that uses products provided by others
• Sellers= an intermediate actor between consumers an producers
• Producers
• Companies
• Statute body= governmental bodies that operate in the market, they are public actors who
operate in the market.
