85460 - E-Democracy, E-Government and E-Citizenship (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2018/2019

Learning outcomes

The course aims to deliver at students the basic knowledge of public law topics related to the digital evolution of our societies. At the end of this course, students will learn: how digital ICTs have challenged our legal systems; how Government in different countries have provided means to facilitate, spread or even control the use of digital technologies; how they have managed the evolution of their own organization and actions, given their fundamental role in offering full access to knowledge. Attention will also be posed to the most recent rules approved for speeding up the affirmation of digital administration, and around specific topics of particular interest for the participants.

Course contents

The course provides students with an overview of theorical and actual features on the impact of ICTs on juridical science, specifically on the evolvement of Public Law.

The analysis will move progressively, from the idea of Information Society to the present state of e-Democracy, to the main characters of e-Government.

Along this path, the students will have deeper insights of specific issues like participation, digital divide, International and European policies, to build a complete framework of present days digital citizenship.

Part 1

Information society and regulation

  • ICTs as a challenge to legal principles, method and technique
  • Internet as a possible juridical object
  • UN and EU approaches to information society
  • The contrast to Digital divide: Definition; Tools; Perspectives

e-Democracy

  • e-Democracy: a definition and main features
  • Differences and analogies with direct and representative democracy
  • e-Democracy and e-Governance
  • Participative democracy and digital democracy

e-Government

  • Structural profiles
  • Operational profiles
  • From “Digital first” to “Digital must”: ICTs as a lever for a new public administration

Part 2

The historical origin of the Cultural Heritage’s concept and the UNESCO’s born

  • What is Cultural Heritage and when this concept born
  • The Allied Education Ministers Conference of 1942: the creation of an international organization for the Culture during the war ‘years
  • ONU 1945

UNESCO’ sources

  • The UNESCO Constitution
  • UNESCO and the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural Heritage
  • The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
  • UNESCO soft law
  • The World Heritage List
  • The regulations and the sanctions preview by UNESCO for the protection of the cultural heritage
  • The sanctions: The Convention of Aja on 1950; The Convention of Paris on 1972

The UNESCO’s Governing Bodies

  • The General Conference
  • The Executive Board
  • The Secretariat
  • The National Commission

Readings/Bibliography

Part 1

E-Government and E-Governance: Definitions/Domain Framework and Status around the World (available at http://csi-sigegov.orgwww.csi-sigegov.org/1/1_369.pdf )

E-Government in Digital Era:
Concept, Practice, and Development
(available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/32415104/EG_in_digital_era.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1530277592&Signature=B9e7Wd0Iq2cOl3O5fezqq8g%2FoDQ%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DE-Government_in_Digital_Era_Concept_Prac.pdf )

E‐government and the transformation of public administrations in EU countries: Beyond NPM or just a second wave of reforms?(available at https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14684520510628918 )

Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age (available at https://books.google.it/books? hl=it&lr=&id=Bq7uk1xgqUEC&oi= fnd&pg=PR9&dq=e-democracy+e- government+textbooks&ots=b- OmmcWVWu&sig= voYaeyfAZ31Ajcpi1GzjGfKI8zg )

 

Part 2

UNESCO CONSTITUTION (available at http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/UNESCO_E.PDF)

Convention concerning the Protection of the world cultural and natural heritage (available at https://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf)

Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (available https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52005PC0678&from=IT)

Governing bodies (available at https://en.unesco.org/about-us/unescos-governing-bodies )

The UNESCO Regime for the Protection of World Haritage, D Zacharias - ‎2010

Battini, Stefano, The Procedural Side of Legal Globalization: The Case of the World Heritage Convention (April 17, 2015). Jean Monnet Working Paper 18/10

Cultural law : international, comparative, and indigenous, Nafziger, James A.R

The UNESCO Regime for the Protection of World Haritage, D Zacharias - ‎2010

Further readings and bibliography will be given during the lessons.

Teaching methods

The course will be based on taught classes. A seminar will be dedicated to the methods and tools of the legal research and the attendance will be compulsory for the students that are willing to defend their thesis on this subject. In addition, other seminars will take place, in order to deepen the students' knowledge on particularly relevant elements or issues of topical interest, to which scholars, representatives of institutions, professionals and experts on the topic will be invited.

Assessment methods

The final assessment consists in a discussion with the teacher on the subjects of the course, with special attention to topics analyzed in class.

These discussions will have place the second day of each assessment session.

Dates of these sessions will be regularly published on almaesami.unibo.it

Teaching tools

Further course materials will be available on the distribution list.

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Donati