AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course (consisting of two modules) aims to provide students with the cognitive and methodological tools necessary to understand public comparative law in its historical development and in its current trends, with reference to the most significant constitutional experiences and to the process of European integration.

The aim of the course is in particular to provide students with in-depth knowledge of principles, institutions and rules belonging to different constitutional systems, both in a synchronic and a diachronic perspective.

Class attendance and individual study will enable the student to:

- acquire the specific vocabulary of the discipline, also in order to be able to examine and understand the scientific literature in English language;

- identify the fundamental values, principles and basic concepts characterizing the historical of constitutional law, from its first manifestations and the great liberal revolutions to the construction of contemporary constitutional democracies;   

- acquire a rational vision of models, institutes and conceptual categories of analysis, typical of the civil law and common law systems, with particular reference to the forms of state, forms of government, electoral systems, fundamental rights, sources of law and constitutional guarantees;

- acquire the cognitive tools necessary to read and understand the constitutional, legislative and jurisprudential sources of some foreign legal systems, in order to effectively compare sectors of public law;

- use the knowledge of the theoretical elements for a critical evaluation of the relationship between the normative dimension and the practical functioning of constitutional systems.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will consist of lectures for a total of 54 hours (9 CFU), during which the topics of the program will be presented analytically. Some seminars could be carried out together with Italian or foreign experts, in order to deepen subjects of particular interest or current issues. Students will be encouraged to actively participate in classroom activities.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course will cover the following topics, using the comparative method:

 - Methods and aims of public comparative law

- Constitutions and constitutionalism

- Forms of State (with special attention to federalism and regionalism)

- Forms of government

- Electoral systems

- Fundamental rights and freedoms

- Constitutional justice

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Attending students (who have attended at least 75% of the lessons): learning materials (slides, lecture notes, regulation, jurisprudence and in-depth reading) uploaded on Aulaweb.

Non-attending students: learning materials (slides, lecture notes, regulation, jurisprudence and in-depth reading) uploaded on Aulaweb and the following book:

- V. Zeno-Zencovich, Comparative Legal Systems. A Short Introduction, RomaTre-Press, 2017.