OVERVIEW

The lectures aim to offer a suitable knowledge of the main elements of public law in a comparative perspective, and they pay specific attention to: 1) political regimes and their historical evolution; 2) organization of local autonomies and emergence of the multi-level government; 3) systems of government (especially in the liberal-democratic regimes); 4) mechanisms of guarantee of both Constitution and human rights.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The lectures deal with structures, values and organization principles of the different political regimes and systems of government developed during the centuries in Europe and North America, as well as their following spread in different cultural environments. Moreover, the lectures deal with the basic elements of the constitutional theory.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

AIMS

The lectures aim to:

Introduce the knowledge of the constitutional theory, as well as the political regimes and systems of government, also in the light of the recent changes caused by both the devolution processes and the integration ones, especially at the European level; introduce to the concept of multi-level government;

Deepen the knowledge of both juridical principles and fundamental institutions of liberal-democracies, through their historical development, their different implementations and the problems they face in their implementation in countries without European cultural traditions;

Approach to the knowledge of both the political and party systems conditioning the working of a political regime, especially in the relations between Legislative and Executive power;

Understand the mechanisms of guarantee of the Constitution and their working, especially the role played by the bodies in charge of the constitutional review;

Deepen the rules and principles about rights and duties present in the constitutional texts and their practical consequences.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (in more detail):

After the lectures, the student should be able to:

Know and use accurately legal and constitutional language;

Develop skills of complementing each other the juridical, politicological and historical approach in the study of the items in question, in order to develop a good ability of critical and multidimensional analysis;

Understand and retrace socio-political and cultural reasons which made possible birth and development of the different political regimes, paying specific attention to the liberal-democracies;

Discern the different political regimes and systems of government and describe their working, also employing, where needed, extra-juridical scientific concepts (politicological, philosophical, etc.);

Apply accurately comparative methodology in both the analysis and the critical evaluation of juridical institutions and political structures in the countries that are subject of the lectures;

Retrace, explain and evaluate critically the real working of a constitutional system, through critical analysis of constitutional (or constitutionally relevant) texts, documents and customs, as well as of every other historical and factual significant element (political and party systems, political culture, etc.); 

Express thoroughly knowledge, opinions, problems and proposals, related to the discipline, to both expert speakers and not;

Possibly express reasoned and justified proposals of institutional reforms, in the light of both the knowledge and the comparative methodology he/she acquired.

PREREQUISITES

To deal effectively with the contents of the discipline, it's necessary to know the basic foundations of constitutional and public law, political thought, contemporary political and institutional history, political science (paying specific attention to the concepts of political system and party system); as well as the basic foundations of political and economical geography the student should have received in his/her previous study curriculum.

It could be so useful (although there isn't any legal obligation in that sense) to have already passed or to study simultaneously for the exams of "Principles of Public Law/Istituzioni di Diritto Pubblico", "Political Science/Scienza Politica", "Contemporary History/Storia Contemporanea" and "History of Political Doctrines/Storia delle Dottrine Politiche".

TEACHING METHODS

The course is 60 hours long and gives 10 CFUs. The professor will mainly give lectures, but teaching activities can also consist of the analysis of legislative, administrative and jurisprudence texts. Lectures will be given in Italian and can possibly be complemented by slides. External lectures, speeches and congresses related to the discipline could be considered as part of the course. In this case, the professor will inform the students about them, during the lectures and through AulaWeb.

The attendance of the teaching activities isn't compulsory, but students not attending at least 70% of the activities shall complete their knowledge through additional readings and texts (see below, the item Recommended Reading/Bibliography).

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Political regimes:

feudal order, absolute State, liberal State, socialist State, authoritarian State and especially liberal-democratic State

Forms of State:

unitary State, regional State, federal State and other intermediate concepts, paying specific attention to the processes of regional integration, especially the European one.

The different concepts of Constitution and the ideology of constitutionalism. Outlines of comparative methodology.

The systems of government in the liberal-democratic regimes: general principles and analysis of some contemporary democratic experiences: presidential government (USA and Latin-American countries, French Second Republic), semi-presidential government (French Fifth Republic, Weimar Republic and brief outlines of other experiences), parliamentary government (United Kingdom, French Third and Fourth Republic, Spain, Germany and brief outlines of Scandinavian and Benelux monarchies, as well as main Commonwealth countries), directorial government (Switzerland), semi-parliamentary government.

During the exposition of the specific constitutional regimes, the lectures deal also with the respective institutional arrangements in the fields of form of State, human rights and duties, and mechanisms of guarantee of the Constitution.

During the lectures, other items about the debate on institutional reform in Italy and/or the reciprocal feedback between European governance and national politics could be dealt with. 

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

In addition to the lecture notes and to the materials the professor will provide through AulaWeb, the following volume is recommended:

- P. Carrozza-A. Di Giovine-G.F. Ferrari (a cura di), Diritto Costituzionale Comparato, Laterza, Roma-Bari, ult. ed., (only the following chapters):

book I: Il Regno Unito (United Kingdom); Gli Stati Uniti d’America (United States of America); La Francia (France); La Germania e l’Austria (Germany and Austria); La Spagna (Spain); La Svizzera (Switzerland); La “Costituzione” europea: dal patrimonio comune al quasi-federalismo (The European "Constitution": from the common heritage to the quasi-federalism); Israele (Israel); Il diritto socialista (Socialist Law);

book II: Preistoria, origini e vicende del costituzionalismo (Start, origins and events of constitutionalism); Le forme di Stato (Political Regimes); Le forme di governo (Systems of Government); Sistemi elettorali e sistemi di partito (Electoral Systems and Party Systems); I rapporti centro-periferia: federalismi, regionalismi e autonomie (Center-Periphery Relations: Federalisms, Regionalisms and local autonomies); La produzione giuridica e i sistemi delle fonti (Law-Making and the Systems of the Sources of Law); La giustizia costituzionale (Constitutional Review Systems).

The students who won’t pledge the minimum required attendance to the lectures shall add the following chapters:

         book I: a chapter of their own choice among the ones not mentioned above;

         book II: L’oggetto e il metodo (Subject and Method); Le libertà e i diritti: categorie concettuali e strumenti di garanzia (Freedoms and rights: conceptual patterns and mechanisms of guarantee).

The above-mentioned volume is recommended as reference text, but the students are also allowed to use other university texts of Comparative Public Law, provided that such texts encompass the whole specified programme and have been published in the last 5 years.

During the course, other readings could be pointed out for foreign students and/or for people interested in deepening the items in question.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ARISTIDE CANEPA (President)

MARIA ANGELA ORLANDI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

The lectures are scheduled in the second term, starting on Monday, February 18th, 2019.

Class schedule

COMPARATIVE PUBLIC LAW

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam will be oral and in Italian but, upon justified request in peculiar cases, it could be written.

Students of Erasmus programme (or other similar programmes scheduling only a temporary stay) are allowed, on request, to sit the exam in other languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese are available).

During the exam, at least three items related to the discipline will be debated, starting from more general concepts to reach then an higher degree of detail. In case of written exam, it will consist in three open questions at different degrees of detail. 

The examination board is appointed by the Department Council and, except in the case of hindrance, chaired by the professor in charge of the course.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

First of all, the student should demonstrate: the knowledge of the course topics, an accurate use of the language, a suitable order in the presentation of the subjects, competence in the technical language, juridical, politicological and historical.

A preferential evaluation will be conferred to the following skills: the ability to re-elaborate in a critical way the acquired information and the concerned topics; the accurate implementation of the comparative methodology; the ability to analyse critically constitutional (or constitutionally relevant) texts, documents and customs, as well as every other historical and factual element (political and party systems, political culture, etc.) significant in the real working of a constitutional system; the possible expression of personal considerations, duly reasoned and justified, according to the acquired data and comparative methodology.

Exam schedule