Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Economics and Finance (cod. 8835)

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide students with the fundamentals of public law. Topics include: sources and interpretation of the law, national and supranational institutions, the government and associated regulatory authorities in real and financial markets (competition authorities, stock market authorities, central banks, etc.), the role of the European Union in real and financial markets and the relations between the European Union and national government, and the legal relations between businesses and the public administration.

Course contents

A general overview of the course. The contemporary public law.

I. Introductive issues.

The constitutive elements of legal systems. Law order. Binding and not-binding rules. Sanctions and penalties. The rule of law (1).

Common Law and Civil Law. Stare decisis and Courts role.

Public Law and Private Law.

The constitutive elements of State (community, territory, sovereignty).

Fundamental powers. Principles and guaranties.

Form of State. Feudal System. Absolute State. Liberal State. Democratic or Pluralistic State. Totalitarian and Authoritarian States. Socialist State.

Form of Government. Parliamentary Republic. Presidential Executive. Directorial Executive. Semi-presidential Executive.

Type of State. Unitary, Federal and Regional State.

National and supra-national legal systems. The State into the international framework. International law and EU law.

II. Sources of law.

Formal and informal sources of law. The ongoing changing in the legal order: soft law and informal measures. The private regulation.

Sources of law. Definitions. Sources of production and sources on the production. Notice and legal cognizance.

Source of production: act sources; fact sources; direct and indirect sources; intra-ordinem and extra-ordinem sources.

Sorting the sources of law: chronological principle; hierarchical principle. Competence and specialization principles.

Principle of law-making process. Rule of law and due process of law (2).

Constitution and constitutional sources. Laws amending the Constitution; other constitutional acts. Constitutional conventions and constitutional customaries.

International sources of law. Treaties, Conventions and international customaries.

The European Convention of Human Rights (Rome, 1950).

EU sources of law. The Treaty on European Union. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TEU-TFEU). The Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union (2009).

Derived EU sources: Regulations; Directives; Decisions. Other (formally not binding) acts: opinions and advisories; recommendations; guide-lines.

Domestic law. Law of the Parliament. Statute Law. Statutory limits.

The law-making process.

Acts having force of law (Legislative Decrees. Law Decrees).

Abrogative referendum.

Standing Order of Constitutional Bodies.

Regional Laws.

Secondary sources. Executive's Regulations. Regional and local authorities’ regulations.

Other regulatory measures issued by administrative authorities and agencies.

Fact sources. Customaries.

III. Organization of constitutional powers.

The Parliament. Representative principle and legislative power.

Bicameral and mono-cameral systems. Equal and not-equal bicameralism. The Chambers of Deputies. The Senate of the Republic. Parliament’s joint session.

Parliament’s powers and functions.

Status of the Members of Parliament. Houses’ Prerogatives. Houses’ organization: President of the Senate; President of the Chamber. Parliamentary groups. Legislative Commissions and other committees.

The Government. Mandate and executive power.

Formation process. Political confidence. Constitutional provisions and constitutional customaries.

Government's crisis.

Essential bodies. President of the Council of Ministers. Council of Ministers. Ministers. Not-essential bodies. Boards and committees.

Auxiliary bodies (CNEL, Council of State and Court of Auditors).

Executive power and the Administrative State. Constitutional principles of the Administrative State. Separation between policy-making process and public offices. The (ongoing) reform of the contemporary Administrative State.

The President of the Republic.

Constitutional status of the office. Checks and balances. The election process. Office requirements and term.

Presidential functions related to fundamental State’s powers. Presidential Acts.

Presidential crimes.

The Constitutional Court.

Form of constitutional justice. The Constitutional Court as constitutional body.

The Italian Constitutional Court. Functions and jurisdiction.

Judgement about the constitutionality of primary sources of law. Direct trial and incidental procedure. Court’s rulings: judgement and ordinance. Legal effects of the declaration of unconstitutionality.

Conflicts about allocation of powers. Judgment about the President’s impeachment. The judgement about the admissibility of abrogative referendum.

The jurisdictional power.

Judicial function. Independency of the Judiciary branch. Composition of the Judicial branch. The Supreme Court. Civil and Criminal Courts. Administrative courts. Other jurisdictions (outlines).

The right to a fair trial and other constitutional principles. Rule of law and due process of law (3). Habeas corpus. Writ.

Rulings structure.

IV. Administrative power.

Public administration. Civil offices and civil servants.

Administrative function and administrative power.

Administrative Acts. The administrative proceeding. Participation and adversarial. Transparency. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Right of access. Limitations.

Administrative measures and provisions.

Flaws of administrative measures. The infringement of the rule of law (4). Symptoms of use of excessive power. Ultra vires. Consequences and remedies.

Administrative remedies. The judicial review.

V. Special issues.

(Independent) Administrative Authorities. Regulatory and quasi-judicial authorities.

Antitrust agencies. The Competition Law. Collusive agreement and administrative procedure (before public authorities). The Abuse of dominant position and the administrative proceeding.

Anticorruption authorities. Transparency and anticorruption measures. Maladministration. The right to a good administration. Rule of law and efficiency.

Collusive behaviors and symptoms of corruption. The conflict of interest.

Readings/Bibliography

- Teaching resources (slides, case law, docs, etc.) will be available on IOL platform.

- Giuseppe Franco Ferrari, Introduction to Italian public law, Giuffrè, 2018. 

- Elisabeth Zoller, Introduction to public law: a comparative study, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008.

- Case Studies and other readings will be recommended along the course.

Teaching methods

Theoretical and case law-based Lectures.

The lessons of the first semester will be organized by one of the models described as follows: http://dsg.unibo.it/en/teaching/projects-and-teaching-methodologies/teaching-modes-at-dsg-on-i-semester-a-y-2020-2021

Assessment methods

Students' knowledge and abilities will be assessed through exams focused on subjects as above indicated (see, “Program and contents” section).

Three full exams will be scheduled during the academic year.

Moreover, two sub-term exams will be scheduled only for attending students:

  • 1st midterm at the end of the 1st sub-cycle, according to the pandemic situation, either as both multiple choice test and case law report (written), or as oral exam;
  • 2nd midterm at the end of the 2nd sub-cycle, as oral exam.

Attending students are expected to attend at least the 75% of the lectures (both sub-cycles).

To attend the exam, each student must be enrolled before the deadline (see, AlmaEsami webpage).

Any problem must be communicated to the teacher/tutor.

Teaching tools

Case Law (rulings; etc.) and case studies (decision; administrative provisions; etc.) will be provided.

Students requiring compensatory measures and/or due to disabilities or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) should communicate it as soon as possible to the teacher, so to be addressed to the appropriate office in order to evaluate and agree the most suitable measures and tools.

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Senzani

SDGs

Quality education Reduced inequalities Peace, justice and strong institutions Partnerships for the goals

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.