- Docente: Emanuela Fronza
- Credits: 2
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Bologna
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Corso:
Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
Legal Studies (cod. 9062)
Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Legal Studies (cod. 6682)
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from Apr 09, 2026 to Apr 23, 2026
Learning outcomes
Criminal cases are never just about individual defendants—they are battlegrounds for constitutional principles, civil liberties, and fundamental rights. This seminar will explore how criminal defence can leverage strategic litigation to protect not only the individual defendant, but also to have a direct effect on the broader constitutional framework that safeguards democratic society. Strategic litigation can be understood as primarily a method of defence, or rather a way of understanding defence in criminal proceedings. In all criminal proceedings, lawyer must be aware that the safeguard of an individual right means also the defence of the right of all those who may find themselves in similar situations. Becoming a strategic litigator, then, means knowing how to identify the right cases to best protect super-individual rights and take the actions that can strengthen the rights of many others in similar situations. Participants will develop skills to identify cases with strategic potential, craft legal arguments and litigation strategies, reason about the broader implications of a case and potential media strategies of a case and familiarise with the techniques used by StraLi’s litigators.
Course contents
1. Theoretical framework: the European and international framework of human rights
2. Strategic litigation: foundations, theory, and tools
3. Strategic litigation in criminal law (1): techniques between defence and creativity
4. Strategic litigation in criminal law (2): case studies
Readings/Bibliography
- Cummings, Scott L. (ed.), The Paradox of Professionalism: Lawyers and the Possibility of Justice, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Pas, K. van der, Strategic litigation, Part of book or chapter of book (Fink, M. (ed.), Redressing Fundamental Rights Violations by the EU. The promise of the 'complete system of remedies', pp. 209-226), 2024.
- Shdaimah, Corey S., Negotiating Justice: Progressive Lawyering, Low-Income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change, NYU Press, 2009.
Teaching methods
The seminar will be structured in 4 meetings of 3 hours. Each meeting will comprise 2 hours of frontal teaching and 1 hour of innovative teaching in the form of participatory and interactive workshops. The latter will entail group activities such as the analysis by the students of concrete cases and the identification of super-individual implications for each of them.
Students are expected to come prepared to the lectures and will be involved in an interactive and open discussion. They will be provided with readings in advance to prepare for the lectures.
Assessment methods
An evaluation will be made at the end of the seminar based on participation and comments during the discussions.
Office hours
See the website of Emanuela Fronza