96314 - PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC LAW

Learning outcomes

The Course aims to provide a general knowledge of the fundamental legal standards related to the contemporary Public Law under the national and European legal frameworks. Consequently, Students are expected to get insides and skills on the following: Legal Systems. Common and Civil Law. National and Supranational Sources of Law. Interpreting Legal Standards. National and Supranational Institutions. State's Powers and Bodies. Law-making and Rule-making. Soft Law and Intangible Standards. Public Power. Government, Agencies and Authorities (NRAs, etc.). Adjudication. Orders and Sanctions. Judiciary and Remedies. Case-Law Methodology will drive the discussion over the Course's subjects and issues.[Public Law and Private Law will be taught in close integration]

Course contents

I. Introductive issues.

Legal system: the constitutive elements. Law order. Binding and non-binding rules. The rule of law. Public Law.

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

State: the constitutive elements of State (community, territory, sovereignty).

Form of State (considering India and China). Democratic or Pluralistic State. Totalitarian and Authoritarian States. Socialist State. B) Unitary, Federal and Regional State.

National and supra-national legal systems. ONU; States into the international framework. European Union- Focus: NextGenerationEU, the EU's plan for emerging stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic and national recovery and resilience plan. (ANTHROPOCENE)

II. Sources of law.

Sources of law. Definitions. Sources of production and sources on the production. Formal and informal sources of law. The ongoing change in the legal order: soft law and informal measures.

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

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.

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 non binding) acts: opinions and advisories; recommendations; guide-lines.

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

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

Abrogative referendum.

Regional Laws.

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

Fact sources. Customaries.

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

III. Freedoms, fundamental Rights, Human Rights

Freedom and rights. Human rights. Fundamental Rights: multilevel protection of Fundamental Rights ( Constitution, the Universal Declaration of human rights , The European Convention of Human Rights (Rome, 1950), EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Citizens and non citizens (migrants)

Rights and duties

Dignity. Equality (and Inequality). Intergenerational Equity (environmental); Individual Rights; Social Rights and social citizenship (migrants); economic rights; political rights.

IV. Organization of constitutional powers.

Form of Government (considering India and China). Parliamentary Republic. Presidential Executive. Directorial Executive. Semi-presidential Executive.

The Parliament, the Government, The President of the Republic in Italy: checks and balances

The election processes.

The Constitutional Court.

The jurisdictional power. Judicial function. Independency of the Judiciary branch. Composition of the Judicial branch. The Supreme Court. Civil and Criminal Courts. Administrative courts and special jurisdiction. The right to a fair trial and other constitutional principles.

Administrative power. Public administration. Constitutional principles of the Administrative State. Administrative function and administrative power.

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

Administrative Acts and proceeding. Participation and adversarial. Transparency.

Administrative remedies. The judicial review.

Readings/Bibliography

In this first book, students can find all issues, related to Italian public law.

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

In this book, students can find international general principles in public law:

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

Students can choose one of the books above, in according to their interests.

Books below are very interesting for studying deeper specific topics and\or for writing a paper (go to assesment methods):

Mark Dawson, Floris de Witte, Eu law and Governance, cambridge University Press, 2022

Wettstein, Business and Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, 2022

Masterman/Murray,Constitutional and Administrative Law, Cambridge University Press, 2022

Teaching methods

In addition to lectures, case studies will allow the study of specific topics covered by recent regulatory changes and case-law.

Assessment methods

During the course the attending students will participate in tests on the topics discussed in the lessons, the outcome of which will be taken into account for the purposes of the final exam. For attending students there is the possibility to write a final paper on a specific topic. The final exam will concern the discussion of the paper.

The exam is oral for other students.

The assessment will take into account the knowledge of the relevant institutional framework, the ability to analyse items and, to single out connections between the relevant topics, to reason critically, as well as the clarity of presentation and critical thinking.

By way of example, the following criteria will be used to assign the final mark (that will be out of 30/30):

- knowledge of a very limited number of topics, extensive support by the interviewer to address and answer the questions, basic yet appropriate language à 18-19/30;

- knowledge of a limited number of topics, ability to autonomously address basic legal problems, use of appropriate language → 20-24/30;

- comprehensive knowledge of the programme, ability to autonomously and critically analyse legal problems, use of specific terminology → 25-29/30;

- extensive knowledge of the programme, ability to reason autonomously and critically analyse legal problems, make connections between the topics, ability to master the specific terminology and ability to present legal arguments. → 30-30L/30.

Teaching tools

Case Studies, Official documents

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Nicodemo