Course 2020-2021 a.y.

The main topics of the course are:

• The origins of constitutional justice.
• The models of constitutional justice.
• Atypical functions of constitutional courts.
• The Italian Constitutional Court. Origins, sources and organization.
• The incidental method of judicial review and the direct method of judicial review.
• Conflicts of attribution.
• Judicial deference in times of emergency.
• The admissibility of referenda.
• The charges against the President of the Republic.
• The Italian style in constitutional adjudication.
• The preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
• The relations of the Italian Constitutional Court with the European Court of Human Rights.
• Judicial reasoning: balancing, reasonableness, proportionality.
• The Constitutional Court and civil society.
• The road to a constitutional court decision.
• The decisions of the Constitutional Court and their effects.
• The Constitutional Court and the Parliament.
• The audiences of the Constitutional Court.

• Classify models of constitutional justice that can be identified in the comparative scenario.
• Describe and understand how the Italian Constitutional Court works.
• Describe and understand how some selected foreign courts work.
• Explain the relationship and the interplay between domestic constitutional courts and supranational courts.
• Identify and understand the case law of supreme, constitutional and supranational courts on some selected topics.

• Critically analyse the case law of supreme, constitutional and supranational courts.
• Interpret the contemporary scenario through the lenses of constitutional law and comparative law.
• Elaborate solutions to legal issues arising from practical situations and evaluate their pros and cons.
• Engage in a discussion on a legal topic with both instructors and peers.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Company visits
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

Along with face-to-face/online lectures, supported by the use of slides and interactive presentations, students are invited to attend guest speakers’ talks (in class or in distance), held by prominent experts (professors, judges etc.).

Students are also called to attend interactive class activities (class seminars) and case-studies.

Class seminars consist of interactive sessions in which students are asked to analyse and discuss legal issues arising from topics of current interest, in which constitutional, supreme or supranational courts play a role.

Case-studies are organized as follows. Before class, students are required to read case-study materials (courts’ decisions, papers, essays), made available in advance through Blackboard. In class, a debate on the case-study is stimulated, in which all students are invited to actively take part.

Moreover, an external visit to the Constitutional Court is organized (provided that enough students are interested in taking part in the visit and that restrictions due to the Covid-19 emergency allow the visit to take place). During their visit to the Constitutional Court, students can attend a public hearing of the Court.

Oral exam, addressing theoretical issues and aimed at assessing whether learners have achieved the set goals in terms of knowledge, as regards the classification of models, the description of how the Italian Constitutional Court and other selected courts work and how their relationship with supranational courts evolved over time, the identification of judicial approaches and trends in case law. The ability to use appropriate language is considered too. Moreover, active participation in class seminars and case-studies is evaluated, in order to assess whether students can critically analyse cases examined in class, discuss some current topics from a constitutional law and comparative law perspective, identify legal issues arising from them and evaluate pros and cons of prospected solutions. For attending students, at least one question within the oral exam concerns a case-study or a class seminar.

The final mark is determined by the evaluation of the oral individual exam. For non-attending students, the whole interview is based on theoretical aspects of the course, in order to assess whether they have achieved the set goals in terms of knowledge, as regards the classification of models, the description of how the Italian Constitutional Court and other selected courts work and how their relationship with supranational courts evolved over time, the identification of judicial approaches and trends in case law. The ability to use appropriate language is evaluated too.

V. Barsotti, P.G. Carozza, M. Cartabia, A. Simoncini, Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context, Oxford University Press, 2015 (more information will be available in the Syllabus).

V. Barsotti, P.G. Carozza, M. Cartabia, A. Simoncini (eds.), Dialogues on Italian Constitutional Justice.

A Comparative Perspective, Routledge, 2020 (more information will be available in the Syllabus).

Papers and essays made available to students through Blackboard.

Cases are available on the website of the Constitutional Court at www.cortecostituzionale.it.

Slides and class notes.

V. Barsotti, P.G. Carozza, M. Cartabia, A. Simoncini, Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context, Oxford University Press, 2015 (more information will be available in the Syllabus).

V. Barsotti, P.G. Carozza, M. Cartabia, A. Simoncini (eds.), Dialogues on Italian Constitutional Justice.

A Comparative Perspective, Routledge, 2020 (more information will be available in the Syllabus).