COSTITUTIONAL LAW
There are not prerequirements.
Course objectives and learning outcomes
The course aims at analysing the Italian Constitution, focusing on the understanding of the constitutional text and its implications. It involves the studying of the notion of the Constitution and of the Italian legal system and its evolution, the fundamental constitutional principles, the constitutional powers, the sources of law, local and regional governments, the relationships between the Italian law system and the European/International legal systems, the fundamental rights, the judiciary and the judicial process, the constitutional system of adjudication and the judicial review of legislation. Particular attention throughout the course is devoted to the system of sources of law, the theory of normative acts and normative facts and the criteria for the solution of conflicts among normative acts.
Course contents
The course program will focus on the following subjects:
1. The State: origins of the modern State and the evolution of the different models of State.
2. The Constitution and the Constitutional State. The Italian Constitution and its basic features.
3. The Constitution as source of law and the constitutional revision process. Ù
4. The sources of law.
5. The Constitutional Court and the constitutional adjudication system.
6. The organization of political powers and its evolution in Italy.
7. Direct and representative democracy. The referenda. The electoral systems
8. The Parliament
9. The Government
10. The President of the Republic
11. The Judiciary
12. The regional and local governments
13. Fundamental rights and liberties.
14. The relationships between the European legal order end the Italian legal order.
Mode of Delivery
The course will consist in 70 hours of frontal lectures. It could also be provided for the holding of seminars – for a maximum of 6 hours – cared for by the staff of the professors in charge
Recommended reading list
The suggested textbook is R. Bin, G. Pitruzzella, Diritto costituzionale, Giappichelli, Torino, XVI ed., 2016.
Students must also know the Italian Constitution in force (see for example M. Siclari, La Costituzione della Repubblica italiana nel testo vigente, Roma, Aracne Editrice, last edition).
During the course, lectures will be alongside some traditional lectures with slides (power point).
Assessment
The examination in the end-of-course appeals (June 2017) is a mandatory written exam, with open questions and multiple choice questions, followed by an oral exam for the best students.
During April 2017 students could participate to an optional written exam. The students that will pass the optional examination, in the end-of-course appeals will be study the remaining part of the program.
In subsequent appeals, the exam consists of an oral examination.
For foreign students, upon request, the exam could be always an oral.