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 multi-level governance; 3) systems of government (especially in the liberal- democratic regimes); 4) constitutional guarantees.

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 following spread in different cultural environments. Moreover, the lectures deal with the basic elements of the constitutional theory.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The lectures aim to:

- Introduce to knowledge of the constitutional theory, as well as the political regimes and systems of government, also in 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 the liberal-democraticies, through their historical development; 

- Approch to the knowledge of both the political and party systems conditioning the working of a political regime, especially in the relations between the 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 pratical consequences;

- Deepen, in the member countries of the European Union examined, the problems related to the relationship between the national law and the law of the Union.

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 good ability of critical and multidimensional analysis;

- Understand and retrace the 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 thier working, also employing, where needed, extra-juridical scientific concepts (politicological, philosophical, etc.);

- Apply accurantely comparative methodology in the 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 elements (political and party systems, political culture, etc.);

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

- Possibly express reasoned and justified proposals for 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 in the basic foundations of political and economical geography the student should have received in his/her previous study curriculum.

During the course the teacher will however explain in a synthetic way those concepts that will be developed in a comparative key.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is 60 hours long and give 10 CFUs. The professor will mainly give lectures, but teaching activities can also consist of the anlysis of legislstive, 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 students not attending al least 70% of the activities shall complete their knowledge through additional reading and texts (see below, the item Recomanded Reading/Bibliography).

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

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 comcepts 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), semi-presidential government (French Fifth Republic, Weimar Republic and brief outlines of the other experiences), parliamentary government (United Kingdom, French Third and Fourth Republic, Spain, Germany), directorial government (Switzerland), semi-parliamentary government.

During the exposition of the specific constitutional regimes, the lectures deal also with respective institutional arrangements in the fields of form of State, human rights and duties, and mechanisms of garantee 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, the frequency of which is considered essential, and the materials the professor will provide through AulaWeb, the following volume is recommende:

- 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 State of America); La Francia (France); La Germania e l'Austria (Germany and Austria) ; La Soagna (Spain); La Svizzera (Switzerlan); La "Costituzione" europea: dal patrimonio comune al quasi-federalismo (The Europea "Constitution": from the common heritage to the quasi-federalism); Il diritto socialista (Socialist Law).

book II: Preistoria, origini e vicende del costituzionalismo (Start, origins and events of constituitionalism); 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: Federalism, 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 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 garantee).

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

MARIA ANGELA ORLANDI (President)

ARISTIDE CANEPA

FEDERICO DELFINO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

The lectures are scheduled in the second term, 17th february 2020.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

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, the exam will be written in other languages (English, French are available)

During the exam, al 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.

For foreign students who apply for it you will be able to take the exam in written form in English or French.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

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

A preferential evaluation will be conferred to the following skills: tha ability to realaborate 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 constitutional system; the possible expression of personal considerations, duly reasoned and justified, according to the acquired data and comparative methodology.

Exam schedule