00227 - Ecclesiastical Law

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide knowledge and insights on the most relevant issues currently concerning the protection and promotion of religious freedom (both individual and collective) in Italy, also moving in a comparative perspective. In this regard, particular consideration will be given to the concrete functioning of religious confessions and their organization on an institutional level, namely with reference to the development of the Italian legal framework. The final part of the course will focus on the institution of concordatarian marriage, both on its substantive and procedural aspects, also by presenting practical issues. The frequent institutional relations between the Italian Republic and different religious confessions (and sometimes, on the other hand, the lack of such relations or their difficulties) lead to the necessity for the students to develop the capability to interpret – and eventually criticize – them in the light of the Italian constitutional and legal context, as well as in the European one. The present-day multiethnic, multicultural and – namely – multireligious society also implies the development of the ability to face – with the assistance of an adequate juridical knowledge – the many issues that today’s social coexistence raises: for instance in hospitals, in schools, in prisons or in other detention centers (according to the availability of places of worship), or in family relationships, etc.

Course contents

The contents of the course are the following, arranged by theme:

 

I. Historical and institutional framework, namely in Europe

• Religions, law and State: a general introduction to the issue and its historical background.
• The Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic traditions in the Europe of human rights and pluralism. Islam in Europe: secularism and religious freedom under test. A new comparison among the “Religions of the Book”.
• The role of religious denominations in the transformation of political society, especially in Europe. 
• Religious freedom and multiculturalism. The issue of compatibility. Overriding principles, cultural uncertainties and jurisprudential swings (namely in Italy).
• Religion and public spaces. The issue of religious symbols.

 

II. State secularism and religious freedom in Italy

• The State and its status from a religious point of view. Confessionalism in Italy: from the Albertine Statute to the Lateran Pacts.
• The role of religion in the Italian Constitution. The “positive” secularism of the State.
• Secular welfare State and sources of Ecclesiastical law. Complexity and articulation of the hierarchy of sources.
• Religious freedom and European integration processes. Specifically the Strasbourg Court. Towards an European Ecclesiastical law?
• Religious freedom and freedom of conscience in the Italian law (art. 19 of the Italian Constitution). Conscientious objections. Atheism.

 

III. The most contentious issues

• Freedom of cult: configuration, facilitations and limitations.
• Places of worship.
• Ecclesiastical cultural heritage.
• Freedom of propaganda and proselytism. The free formation of conscience. Freedom to change religion.
• Criminal law protection of religious freedom.
• Confessional affiliation, religious beliefs as sensitive personal information, privacy protection.
• Religious freedom, marriage and family; minors’ freedom of conscience.
• Religious freedom and education. Confessional schools. Religious education in public schools.
• Religious freedom and employment relationships.
• Spiritual care in detention centers.

 

IV. Religious institutions and their relations with the State

• The collective dimension of religious freedom. Religious confessions with an agreement or without an agreement.
• New religious movements: the alternative between general law and special legislation.
• Churches and religious denominations in the Italian post-unitarian tradition.
• Independence and sovereignty of the Catholic Church, autonomy of other religious denominations (artt. 7 and 8 of the Italian Constitution). Limits: namely the issue of “democraticity” in religious laws.
• Social groups and legislative negotiation.
• Lateran Pacts and their reform: the constitutional coverage.
• Agreements with religious confessions other than Catholicism.
• Religious confessions without an agreement.
• Jurisdictional and disciplinary authority of religious confessions.
• Ecclesiastic and religious clergymen: namely the priest-penitent privilege, incompatibilities and religious’ employment.

 

V. Holy See and Vatican City State

• Holy See and Vatican City State. From the Law of Guarantees to the Lateran Treaty.
• Nature, internal organization and legal status of the Vatican City State. Relations with Italy. Relations with the international community and with the European Union.
• Rights and powers of the Holy See. The “central institutions” of the Catholic Church.
• The Holy See on the international stage: presence and activities.
• The Holy See and its activities in the Italian law.

 

VI. Organization and activities of religious confessions

• Art. 20 of the Italian Constitution. Ecclesiastical institutions: definition and peculiarities. General conditions for the recognition. Designation for divine worship. General and special requirements for specific groups of institutions. Legal regime of ecclesiastical institutions: from the recognition to the closure, namely the controls over their administration and the disclosure regime.
• Assistance and charity activities. Non-profit organizations. Ecclesiastical institutions and the voluntary sector.
• Financial relationships between the Italian Republic and religious denominations
• Financial support of Catholic clergy and ministers of other religious faiths.

 

VII. Religious marriage and its relevance in the Italian law

• Civil effects of religious marriages. Registration of a Catholic marriage and registration of other religious marriages.
• Nullity of Catholic marriages and Pope Francis' reform of the processes regarding the nullity of marriage. Civil effects of ecclesiastical judgments of nullity of marriage.
• Civil jurisdiction and ecclesiastical jurisdiction: open issues.

 

In-depth studies will be dedicated to the restrictions suffered by the right to religious freedom following the crisis determined by the COVID-19 pandemic, to the subject of the protection of religious freedom as arising within employment relationships, to religious dietary rules and their relevance, to the issues related to religiously-oriented clothing, to religious freedom and Social Networks and to other topical themes.

 

For the integration of 1, 2, 3, credits, students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

Erasmus students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

Readings/Bibliography

In preparation for the exam, students have to choose one of the following alternatives:

I. ZUANAZZI, M.C. RUSCAZIO, M. CIRAVEGNA, La convivenza delle religioni negli ordinamenti giuridici dei Paesi europei, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, 2022, pp. 1-365.

E. VITALI, A.G. CHIZZONITI, Manuale breve diritto ecclesiastico, Seventeenth edition, Giuffrè, Milano, 2022, pp. XV-416.

A. BETTETINI, A. PEREGO, Diritto ecclesiastico, Cedam - Wolters Kluwer, Milano, 2023, pp. 1-378.

G. CASUSCELLI (ed.), Nozioni di diritto ecclesiastico, Fifth edition, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, 2015, pp. XIII-485.

 

For the special part (footnotes excluded):

G. BONI, L’efficacia civile in Italia delle sentenze canoniche di nullità matrimoniale dopo il Motu Proprio Mitis iudex (parte prima), in the online Journal Stato, Chiese e pluralismo confessionale, www.statoechiese.it, n. 2/2017, pp. 1-112.

G. BONI, L’efficacia civile in Italia delle sentenze canoniche di nullità matrimoniale dopo il Motu Proprio Mitis iudex (parte seconda), in the online Journal Stato, Chiese e pluralismo confessionale, www.statoechiese.it, n. 5/2017, pp. 1-68.

 

In the course of her lessons, the Professor will supply and recommend teaching aids and further learning material, following students' specific requests and interests. The material will be gradually uploaded on the Professor's website and made available to students.

 

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. The exam program coincides with the subjects of the course.

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 Faculty website. The Professor uses slides (or other supplementary material) that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform.

Students who attend the course will be invited to actively take part in the analysis of the themes studied in class: students will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the Professor – a written paper about specific issues they are particularly interested in, which will be previously corrected and discussed together, and then evaluated during the final exam, thus concurring to the overall assessment. For this purpose, one or more practice sessions will be held in classroom or online, in parallel to lessons, in which methods for searching for sources and bibliographic materials, and for the formal writing, structuring and drafting of juridical texts will be explained: on this occasion, students will be given time for questions, requests for clarification and further information.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the Professor by e-mail in order to receive communications.

Assessment methods

Only students who have already taken the exams of Constitutional law and Private law are admitted to the final exam.

The verification of learning outcomes consists in an exclusively oral final exam, which will explore the acquisition of the required knowledge and skills through an oral examination sustained with the Professor.

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

Through such exam, the knowledge learned and the critical and methodological skills acquired by the student will be assessed.

In addition to the possession of a mastery of expression and of an appropriate technical language, the student will also have to prove to be able to move confidently within the system of the legal sources on the matter, to have a clear perception of the received information and to have understood and adequately deepened the themes that were addressed in class and explained in the reference textbooks, which will have to be described and argued properly. 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 analyze 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 teacher – 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 teacher 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.

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

 

Thesis

For the assignment of a thesis, students must go to the Professor's office hours in order to discuss and select the subject.

Teaching tools

During the lessons the Professor will supply and recommend texts and further learning material 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 Faculty website.

The Professor uses 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 institutes explained during the lessons.

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

The collaborators of the Chair and the Professor receive the students on the same day.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the Professor by e-mail in order to receive communications.

Office hours

See the website of Geraldina Boni