00534 - Principles of Public Law (F-N)

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and skills to be acquired

The course aims to provide students with knowledge, skills and tools deemed necessary to understand the Italian institutional system. By the end of the course, students will learn: the foundations of public law, including but not limited to the institutions of the State, the Constitution and its origin, the relationship between the domestic and supranational legal systems, fundamental rights and their safeguards, the organisation of public powers. Students will be able to use the methodology of legal analysis and all the institutional paradigms.

Course contents

The articulated content of the programme includes:

 

1. THE LAW, THE LEGAL ORDER, AND THE LEGAL NORMS.

The legal system and constitutional law:

The rules of the law.

What is a legal system.

The Constitution.

 

2. THE STATE AND THE ITALIAN LEGAL ORDER.

The State and its formative elements: people; territory; government.

Forms of state and form of government.

 

3. THE ITALIAN LEGAL ORDER AND THE EUROPEAN UNION.

 

4. THE SOURCES OF LAW.

Sources of production and sources of cognition.

Legal customs and legal acts.

Criteria for resolving antinomies: chronological, hierarchical, and competence criteria. The role of legal interpretation.

The Constitution as source of law: The concept of Constitution and the Italian Constitution; Constitutional laws and laws of constitutional revision.

The sources of primary law.

The Regional Sources.

The International and European sources of law.

The Secondary Sources.

The Legal Customs.

 

5. THE PARLIAMENT AND THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY

The Parliament and the bicameral system.

Members and organs of the Chambers: the status of parliamentarians.

Legislative and regulatory power.

The Italian Parliament and the implementation of the EU law.

The institutions of direct democracy: the petition and the popular legislative initiative.

The abrogative referendum.

 

6. GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION.

The formation of the Government. Trust and no-confidence, government crises and individual vote of no-confidence.

Primary and secondary regulatory function of the Government.

The constitutional principles on administration: The principle of legality, impartiality and good performance.

The judicial protection of rights and legitimate interests.

 

7. THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC.

The role of the President of the Republic; his/her function of guarantee, the President as a neutral power.

The election and the presidential mandate.

The powers of the President.

The powers of control, of guarantee, of prerogative, of influence, of political intermediation.

The acts of the President of the Republic: presidential acts deliberated by different bodies, proper presidential acts, presidential acts with complex participation.

The value of the ministerial countersignature.

Presidential responsibilities and offences: the procedure of indictment and the judgment by the Constitutional Court.

 

8. REGIONS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Regions and local authorities in Italian institutional history.

The new Title V.

Administrative functions and the principle of subsidiarity.

 

9. LIBERTIES AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.

The protection of rights.

The inviolable rights in Article 2 of the Constitution.

The principle of equality.

The rights to personality.

The freedoms of individuals and groups.

 

10. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

The judicial function.

The judicial organisation.

The autonomy and independence of the judiciary.

The Superior Council of the Judiciary.

 

11. CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION.

The origins and models of constitutional adjudication.

The Constitutional Court: composition and functions.

The judgement of constitutional legitimacy: the object and the parameter.

The defects of constitutional legitimacy.

Access to the Constitutional Court.

The incidental judgement.

The judgment among powers.

The typology of judgments and their effects.

Conflicts of attribution.

The judgement on indictment proceedings against the President of the Republic.

The judgement on the admissibility of abrogative referendums.

Readings/Bibliography

F. Politi, Diritto pubblico, Giappichelli, Torino, 2022.

The textbook shall be studied INTEGRALLY, together with

F. Rescigno – G. Giorgini Pignatiello (eds.), One Earth – One Health. La costruzione giuridica del Terzo millennio, Giappichelli, Torino, 2023.

Both the volumes are necessary. Any chapter to be omitted in the study will be (in case) pointed out during the lessons by the Professor (NON-attending students are required to study both the books entirely.

The study of Public Law is based on the Constitution, every student is needed to have one.

THE TEXTBOOKS ARE THE SAME FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS AND, OF COURSE, FOR BOTH THOSE TAKING THE WRITTEN TESTS AND THOSE TAKING THE ENTIRE ORAL EXAMINATION.

Teaching methods

After an initial general introduction aimed at learning the tools and methods useful for the study of public law, with particular attention to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitutional Charter, the course will examine the system of the sources of law, starting from the constitutional text to secondary sources of law, and especially the international legal system and the EU sources that today are decisive for our legal system, as well as secondary sources.

Subsequently, the study will focus on the investigation of the form of State and the parliamentary form of government as designed by the Constituent Assembly and materialised in the course of republican life.

Another important stage in the study of Public Law is the examination of fundamental freedoms, among which the principle of equality will be examined in detail.

The study of freedoms is directly linked to that of the judicial system and constitutional adjudication, an instrument for protecting and guaranteeing the entire constitutional order.

The programme will be carried out as much as possible in frontal teaching hours and will be accompanied by optional seminars on the various topics.

Assessment methods

THERE ARE TWO TYPOLOGIES OF EXAMINATION FOR PUBLIC LAW:

 

1. MODE CONSISTING OF PASSING TWO WRITTEN TESTS BASED ON QUIZZES AND OPEN QUESTIONS.

THE FIRST WRITTEN TEST WILL TAKE PLACE APPROXIMATELY HALFWAY THROUGH THE COURSE, WHILE THE SECOND ONE WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE END OF THE LESSONS.

THE DATES OF THE TESTS ARE DECIDED BY THE TEACHER AND THERE IS NO PLACE FOR PERSONAL ADJUSTMENTS.

THESE DATES WILL BE ANNOUNCED APPROXIMATELY 7 DAYS IN ADVANCE.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REGISTER FOR THE WRITTEN TESTS, JUST SHOW UP ON THE DAY OF THE TEST AT THE TIME SET BY THE TEACHER.

PASSING THE FIRST WRITTEN TEST IS COMPULSORY FOR ACCESS TO THE SECOND WRITTEN TEST.

THEREFORE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO TAKE THE SECOND WRITTEN TEST IF YOU HAVE NOT PASSED THE FIRST.

IF THE SECOND WRITTEN TEST IS NOT PASSED, THE ENTIRE EXAMINATION MUST BE TAKEN ORALLY.

THE EXAMINATION WILL ONLY BE PASSED IF IN BOTH WRITTEN TESTS A POSITIVE RESULT HAS BEEN OBTAINED AND THE AVERAGE RATING OF THE TWO TESTS IS VERBALISED (if accepted).

OTHERWISE THE ENTIRE EXAMINATION WILL BE TAKEN ORALLY.

IN ORDER TO FINALISE THE AVERAGE MARK THE STUDENTS MUST REGISTER (ON ALMAESAMI) FOR A CALL EXPRESSLY DEDICATED ONLY TO THE FINALISATION OF THE EXAMINATION AS INDICATED BY THE LECTURER.

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE YOUR AVERAGE GRADE RECORDED BECAUSE IT DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS OR FOR OTHER REASONS, YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE THE FULL ORAL EXAMINATION.

THE VALIDITY OF THE TWO WRITTEN TESTS IS LIMITED TO THE ACADEMIC YEAR IN WHICH THEY ARE TAKEN.

 

2. FULLY ORAL EXAMINATION MODE.

IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE TO CHOOSE TO ATTEND THE LESSONS BUT NOT TO TAKE THE WRITTEN TESTS AND THEREFORE TO TAKE THE ENTIRE EXAM ORALLY BY REGISTERING (ON ALMAESAMI) FOR ONE OF THE SCHEDULED EXAMS AFTER THE END OF THE LESSONS.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THOSE WHO DO NOT PASS THE FIRST WRITTEN TEST CANNOT TAKE THE SECOND WRITTEN TEST AND MUST THEREFORE UNDERGO THE ENTIRE EXAMINATION ORALLY.

THOSE WHO PASS THE FIRST TEST BUT NOT THE SECOND MUST STILL TAKE THE ENTIRE ORAL EXAMINATION.

THE TEXTBOOKS ARE THE SAME BOTH FOR THOSE WHO ATTEND AND THOSE WHO DO NOT AND IT IS THE SAME BOTH FOR THOSE WHO TAKE THE WRITTEN TESTS AND FOR THOSE WHO TAKE THE EXAM ENTIRELY ORALLY.

Teaching tools

Power point

dvd

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Rescigno