Maria Gigliola Di Renzo

Just war theory is dominated by two positions. According to the traditional view, combatants both on the just and the unjust side have an equal right to fight, which is not affected by the justice of the cause pursued by their state. According to a recent revisionist account, only combatants fighting for a just cause have such right. David Estlund has offered a sophisticated account that aims to reconcile these two views by looking at our duty to obey the order of democratic political institutions. The article criticizes Estlund’s account and points at an important to be learned from it

This paper analyses 17th century Decisiones Rotae Romanae with focus on inheritance and testament. Given that there is a strong body of opinion that Roman Rota “facit communem opinionem”, that “Eorumque sententiae appellantur decisiones Rotae quae tantae auctoritatis sunt, ut habeantur pro legibus apud omnes nationes subiectas”, this study investigates the contents of the decisiones as to this topic. Giambattista De Luca, author of the masterpiece Theatrum veritatis et justitiae, states that usually judges do not follow almost entirely shared common rules, but rather, based on the last will, consider the special circumstances of each case, so that they decide in a different way “pro diversitate locorum, temporum, personarum, et aliorum accidentium…”. The results of the investigation are that the Decisiones certainly follow more rationes than authoritates than in the past. They are also the mirror of a possible unification of a ius commune europaeum on last will, in a twist of legal science shared by the coeval respublica iureconsultorum and by their own jurisprudential guidelines, as well as by those of European Sovereign Courts. The strict execution of the will of the deceased is a repeated dogma.

This book presents a broad overview of succession law, encompassing aspects of family law, testamentary law and legal history. It examines society and legal practice in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present from both a legal and a sociological perspective. The contributing authors investigate various aspects of succession law that have not yet been thoroughly examined by legal historians, and in doing so they not only add to our knowledge of past succession law but also provide a valuable key to interpreting and understanding current European succession law. Readers can explore such issues as the importance of a father’s permission to marry in relation to disinheritance, as well as inheritance transactions and private, dynastic and cross-border successions. Further themes addressed by the expert contributors include women’s inheritance rights, the laws of succession for the prince in legal consulting, and succession in the Rota Romana’s jurisprudence.