Public Law

The course addresses the main features of the legal phenomenon; subjects of law; legal relationships; the concept of legal order; the system of sources of law, with particular reference to the criteria for resolving conflicts between sources and to legal interpretation; the scope of public law and the different conceptions of the Constitution; the constituent elements of the State; the concept of forms of State and the principal forms of State that have developed historically (absolute, police, liberal, pluralist and social, theocratic and autocratic, unitary, federal and regional); the concept of forms of government and the principal forms of government that have developed (presidential, semi-presidential and parliamentary, together with their respective variants); the fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution; the electorate, political rights and the abrogative referendum; Parliament (methods of election and dissolution, structure, organisation, functions and the status of Members of Parliament); the Government (formation and crises, organisation, functions and responsibility); legislation and acts having the force of law; State regulations; the functions of political direction and oversight; public administration; independent authorities and auxiliary bodies; the President of the Republic (election, functions and resposibility); Regions and local authorities, with particular reference to their statutory, legislative, administrative and financial autonomy, as well as to their relations with the European Union and with other levels of government; the judiciary and the High Council of the Judiciary; the constitutional principles governing the exercise of judicial functions and the rights of access to justice and defence in judicial proceedings; the Constitutional Court, with particular reference to the system of constitutional justice; fundamental freedoms (personal liberty, inviolability of the home, freedom of communication, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion and freedom of expression); the constitutional regulation of the family; social rights (education, health, work, social security and assistance) and economic rights (economic initiative and property); public duties and new rights.

As an indication, the course examines: the foundations of a legal order and the principles of legal reasoning; the forms of State; the international law (overall view) and the relationships between the international legal order and domestic legal order; the European integration's process and the European legal order (overall view); the system of the sources of law; the forms of government; the principles of Italian constitutional order; the Italian constitutional history; the fundamental rights; the referendum and the institutions of representative democracy; the Italian Legislative Power; the Italian President of the Republic; the Italian Executive Power; the Italian regional and local system of government; the Italian system of Public Administration; the Italian Judiciary; the Italian judicial review of legislation and Constitutional Court.