The course approaches comparative law and legal studies from a global perspective. It provides students with an overview of the most important legal traditions of the world, questioning state-centered paradigms and investigating current legal transformations. The first part of the course focuses on the meaning of comparative law and introduces fundamental concepts, such as those of legal traditions, legal transplants and legal pluralism, considering legal globalization as one of the most important developments for contemporary legal studies. The second part deals with the core of the Western legal traditions analyzing the Common law & Civil law archetypical divide. It also analyses mixed legal systems, their distinctive traits and growing importance for comparative legal studies. The meaning of democracy and human rights as Western or universal values is investigated as well in this part of the course, through concrete case studies and via class debates. The third cycle broadens the course’s comparative spectrum, approaching some of the most important non-Western/non-European legal traditions (Sub-Saharan, East-Asian, Hindu, Talmudic, Islamic and Latin American), while questioning the possible reconciliation of legal diversity on a global scale. The course will provide students with the opportunities to: 1. Better appreciate how cultural, social and historical factors dialogue and interrelate with the development of legal structures, doctrines, and substantive rules; 2. Approach the study of some of the major legal traditions of the world and their contemporary relevance and vitality; 3. Acquire tools for understanding the impact of globalization on legal and political structures and the limits of State-centered legal paradigms; 4. Appreciate culturally pluralist perspectives on law, while acquiring a comparative legal method and a global understanding of the contemporary legal challenges; 5. Enhance argumentative and legal analysis skills via class discussion and exchange.