C8761 - WORKSHOP: COMPARATIVE LEGAL SKILLS

Learning outcomes

This workshop provides students with transversal and multidisciplinary skills for their future employments in both the private and the public sector, intersecting legal comparison, public law, constitutional law, and administrative law. At the end of the activities, students will have acquired comparative knowledge concerning legal tools to infringe upon the rule of law and will have read, analysed and tried judicial reasoning techniques on the issue.

Course contents

The Workshop (20 hours) provides students with the constitutional, comparative, and jurisprudential tools necessary to understand the phenomenon of rule of law backsliding within the European Union.

The sessions examine the legal and constitutional strategies adopted by several EU Member States—particularly Poland and Hungary—to weaken the separation of powers, judicial independence, and other core principles of constitutional democracy.

Classes combine the analysis of EU institutional documents, national constitutional and legislative texts, and landmark judgments delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, and national constitutional and supreme courts, enabling students to critically assess the legal responses to democratic backsliding in Europe.

Readings/Bibliography

• EU Commission 2026 Rule of Law Report - Country Chapter Italy
• Case C-216/18 PPU, LM (European Arrest Warrant), Court of Justice of the European Union, 2018
• Joined Cases C-156/21 and C-157/21, Hungary and Poland v. Parliament and Council (Conditionality Regulation), Court of Justice of the European Union, 2022
• Case C-521/21, Commission v. Poland (Judicial Appointments), Court of Justice of the European Union, 2025
• Case C-769/22, Commission v. Hungary (Hungarian "Propaganda Law"), Court of Justice of the European Union, 2026
• Wałęsa v. Poland (Grand Chamber), ECtHR, 2023
• Lorenzo Bragado v. Spain, ECtHR, 2023

• Romanian Constitutional Court, Decision No. 32/2024 (Annulment of the 2024 Presidential Election)
• Judgment K 47/15 (Constitutional Tribunal Appointment Case) – Polish Constitutional Tribunal

Teaching methods

The workshop adopts different methods: a) practical analysis of legislative texts and sentences; b) search for materials on the websites of relevant parliaments and courts; c) use of databases and textual analysis.

Assessment methods

This workshop does not provide a specific grade, rather just a pass.

In order to pass the course, students are required to complete an assignment based on the sessions and to actively participate in class.

Teaching tools

Slides, institutional websites, policy Papers, blogs.

Office hours

See the website of Sabrina Ragone