99577 - Religious entities and Third sector law

Learning outcomes

The course aims to make students aware of the complexity, purpose and implementation of the rules that define the legal status and activity of the many different religious entities in the Italian legal system. On the one hand, it is necessary to take into account provisions of various nature – State ones and denominational ones, unilateral and bilateral ones at different levels – that reveal how the system of sources, precisely through its width and articulation, intends to protect and enhance the religious factor together with the principle of horizontal subsidiarity, placing itself in the wake of the Constitutional Charter. On the other hand, these same provisions regulate matters so relevant today – such as the recognition of ecclesiastical entities and their modification and extinction events, financing, administration, religious or worship activities and activities of different nature, including commercial ones, the position of the worker in trend organizations, etc. – that cannot but be the object of in-depth knowledge by jurists: who, within the legal professions, must develop the ability to address issues – even purely technical ones – regarding the galaxy of entities of religious origin or inspiration that are not easy to resolve, combining common law with the elements of specialty that are recognized to them. Particular attention is paid to the discipline of civilly recognized religious entities in light of the 2017 Third Sector reform, which presents important elements of innovation but also problematic aspects of an interpretative and applicative nature.

Course contents

I. Organizations of religious denominations and their discipline

 

- Preliminary introduction. The religious element in the Italian Constitution (artt. 2, 3, 7, 8, 19 and 20)

- Laws nn. 206 and 222 of 20 May 1985 within the system of the sources of Ecclesiastical law

- Constitutive, modifying and extinguishing events of ecclesiastical organizations

- Administration of ecclesiastical entities and civil relevance of the controls provided in Book V of Codex Iuris Canonici

- Religious or worshipping activities and other activities

- Ecclesiastical entities as entrepreneurs and their subjection of ecclesiastical entities to insolvency procedures

- Entities of the Catholic Church and entities of religious denominations other than Catholicism

- Activities of the Holy See in the Italian legal system: central entities of the Catholic Church and the guarantees of the Lateran Treaty

- Ideologically oriented organizations in light of Italian and supranational law and case law

 

II. Funding of religious denominations

 

A. General part – The Italian system

- Evolution of financial relationships between State and religious denominations

- Ecclesiastical properties: public law and private law revenues. Particularly the ‘eight per thousand’ system

- Funding of religious denominations other than Catholicism

- Financial support of the clergy and its system

 

B. Special part – The patrimony of the Holy See

- Administration of ‘Vatican finances’ in the 20^th century

- Ecclesiastical goods of the Holy See

- Offerings of the faithful: Peter’s Pence and the management of Papal Funds

- The Institutions of Finance of the Roman Curia

- The season of Pope Francis’ reforms. The reorganization of the Institute for the Works of Religion

 

III. Religious organizations and the reform of the Third Sector

- Historical evolution and constitutional aspects

- The reform (d.lgs. nn. 112 and 117 of 3 July 2017)

- The Third Sector entity

- Tax liability, controls and transparency of the activities

- The non-profit nature of ecclesiastical entities

- The discipline of social enterprises and the ‘branch’ for general interest activities of civilly recognized religious organizations

Readings/Bibliography

A. BETTETINI, Ente ecclesiastico, beni religiosi e attività di culto. Profili giuridici, Second edition, Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre, Milano, 2024, pp. 1-68 and pp. 139-200.

 

AA.VV., Gli enti ecclesiastici nella riforma del Terzo settore, a cura di P. CAVANA, G. Giappichelli editore, Torino, 2021, pp. 240 (only the essays of P. CAVANA, Gli enti ecclesiastici nella riforma del Terzo settore. Profili ricostruttivi e applicazioni pratiche, pp. 1-62 and P. LO IACONO, Gli enti ecclesiastici e gli enti religiosi quale archetipo della personalità giuridica (La valenza funzionale della personificazione tra normativa pattizia e Codice del Terzo Settore), pp. 63-122).

 

Students who attend the course will follow a facilitated exam program. They will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the teachers – a paper about specific issues they’re particularly interested in, which will be evaluated during the final exam and will concur to the overall assessment.

In the course of her lessons, the teachers will supply and recommend teaching aids and further learning material, following students' specific requests and interests.

Teaching methods

The course will develop through lectures, seminars and meetings with experts.

Lectures will be given in the Ist semester. As a consequence, students obtaining their attendance certificate in the current academic year are allowed to take their exam only from the month of January.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures or through notices, also on the Course website. The teachers use slides (or other supplementary material) that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform.

The students who attend the course will be invited to take part actively in the analysis of the themes studied in class: they will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the teachers – a paper about specific issues they’re particularly interested in, which will be evaluated during the final exam and will concur to the overall assessment.

Assessment methods

Only the student who has already taken the exams of Constitutional law and Private law is admitted to the oral exam

The verification of learning consists in a final exam which will explore the acquisition of knowledge and skills requested through an oral examination sustained directly with the teachers.

The exam will cover the issues described in the “Course contents” section. The examination entails the assignment of a grade.

In this way the student will be able to show not only the learned knowledge, but also the critical and methodological capacities gained.

In the same time he will have to demonstrate to have some specific abilities. First of all, the possession of a mastery of expression and an appropriate technical language. The second one is the ability to move in safely within the system of the sources of this matter. The student moreover must have a clear perception of the information received and, finally, he must have properly understood the issues addressed in class and elucidated in the textbooks of reference. Learning such skills is easier during the course, the attendance of which is recommended in order to improve the learning process and therefore the student’s performance during the exam.

Namely, about the oral exam:

 As previously mentioned, the aim of the oral exam is to assess the actual achievement of the learning outcomes: therefore, both the knowledge of the relevant legal issues and the student’s capability to apply it in order to realize the required logical-deductive connections will be taken into account.

By way of a mere example, the assignment of the final grade will be based on the following criteria:

Sufficient knowledge of a very small number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that only emerge through extensive support by the interviewer, with the use of a language that is not incorrect but is not completely accurate either → 18-19;

Fairly good knowledge of a limited number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that are autonomous only on purely executive issues, with the use of a correct but not fully confident and exhaustive language → 20-24;

Good knowledge of a wide number of the topics addressed during the course and capability to develop autonomous analytical skills, with an efficient and confident use of a technically specific language → 25-29;

Extensive and substantially exhaustive knowledge of the whole program addressed during the course, capability to develop very good legal reasonings and to critically analyse and connect different topics, with a fully confident use of a technically specific language that shows a mature ability to develop original reflections → 30-30L.

The students who attend the course will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the teachers – a paper about specific issues they’re particularly interested in, which will be evaluated during the final exam and will concur to the overall assessment.

Students who need compensatory tools for reasons of disability or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) will communicate to the teachers their needs so as to be directed to the dedicated person and arrange on the adoption of the most appropriate measures: the same also applies with regard to the final exam.

As regards assessment of learning, since the examination is exclusively oral, the use of AI is prohibited. Any use constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Students have to book the final exam on the web application AlmaEsami.

Teaching tools

During the lessons the teachers will indicate and provide texts and supplementary materials to complete the preparation.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures and through notices on the Course website.

The teachers use slides that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform in order to help them understanding the issues and the institutions explained during the lesson.

Students who need compensatory tools for reasons of disability or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) will communicate to the teachers their needs so as to be directed to the dedicated person and arrange on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

The teachers will receive the students on the same day.

Office hours

See the website of Manuel Ganarin

See the website of Alberto Tomer