The scope of the course is to give a comprehensive overview of the interactions between the Italian constitutional system and those of the European Union and of the Council of Europe. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the Italian Constitutional Court and to the degree of protection granted to rights by courts at the different levels. The use of court cases in the lectures will facilitate students to deal with first-hand materials, most of which available in multilingual versions. In particular, classes focused on decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court will operate both on texts in Italian and in their English translations, when available, facilitating students in acquiring familiarity with vocabulary and practice useful for their perspective academic and professional careers.

Knowledge and understanding of the Italian constitutional order, placed within the framework of the institutional arrangements of the European Union. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding. The student, acquiring knowledge and understanding the operating dynamics of the main institutions of constitutional law (the State, the State and the international community, the Italian Republic and the European Union, forms of state and forms of government, sources of law , constitutional guarantees, constitutional justice, constitutional organization, judicial power, constitutional principles on administration, territorial autonomies, freedoms and rights) will be able to build more complex concepts in order to achieve a vision of ensemble of the constitutional order in the EU and international context. Autonomy of judgment: the student will be stimulated to achieve his own autonomy of evaluation and judgment on legal problems and the methodological tools useful for the collection, interpretation and application of regulatory sources, in order to apply them independently and original to the analysis of the problems that will be faced in the workplace. Communication skills. The student will be brought to develop and use with mastery the legal lexicon of constitutional area, with terminological precision and an appropriate rhetorical and argumentative ability. Learning ability. The student will develop the ability to identify and interpret regulatory changes and new doctrinal and jurisprudential orientations, also updating independently.

The course consists of two parts: the first devoted to set the Italian constitutional system in the European legal area; the second focused on a list of court cases from both the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, with the aim of reconstructing the system of fundamental right protection in the same context. Most of the course will be focused on cases and precedents, with the aim of stimulating the discussion during the in campus classes

The first part of the course is mainly based on selected parts of D. Tega, G. Repetto, G. Piccirilli, S. Ninatti, Italian Constitutional Law in the European Context (Wolters Kluwer, 2023). The second part of the course is based on materials and casenotes that will be available on the Elearning platform of the course

Students will be involved to actively participate to class discussions of the cases, also by selecting for each class a small group of discussion leaders in charge of presenting the case to the class.

At the end of the first part of the course, students may submit – on voluntary basis – a written test. Final exam will be oral. In case of attending the midterm exam, it will be counted 50% of the final evaluation. in that case, final exam will cont for the residual 50%. In case of not attending the midterm exam, final exam will cont 100% of the final mark. Students will be invited to present cases in the second part of the course. Cases are divided in three clusters: 1, 2, 3. Students who will present one of the cases will be exempt, in the final exam, from the other cases of the same cluster. During the oral exam the student will be required to show that he/she knows and understands notions and principles of advanced constitutional law and that he/she is able to apply them to practical cases. The student is expected to be able to independently analyse sources and relevant theories of advanced constitutional law and to use the appropriate technical and legal vocabulary, thus proving that he/she has acquired the study method and the learning ability for carrying on, also independently, further study of the matter. The following evaluation criteria will be taken into account to assign the final grade, expressed in thirtieths: - knowledge and understanding of the notions and principles of the matter and ability to apply them to concrete cases (65%); - appropriate use of the technical and legal vocabulary, ability to analyse and evaluate relevant sources and acquisition of the study method (35%). Learning gaps concerning one or more notions or principles - as well as a seriously inadequate use of the terminology - will lead to an insufficient evaluation, even in presence of a basic knowledge of the matter.

Minimum mark 27/30 Specific interest in Italian and European constitutional systems and their evolution