CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Course objectives
General objectives The course aims at providing the student with a basic comprehension of constitutional law through front-line lessons. Specific objectives The student will be able to comprehend constitutional law, will be provided with a methodological ability to connect the costituzionale law’s various parts, together with the skill in developing critical capacities, communicate his knowledges and further pursue his studies.
Channel 1
GAETANO AZZARITI
Lecturers' profile
Channel 2
ANDREA LONGO
Lecturers' profile
Program - Frequency - Exams
Course program
- The first part will be devoted to the study of public law institutions concerning, more specifically, the system of checks and balances, including the judiciary, fundamental rights and constitutional justice [36 hours];
- The second part will focus on the analysis of the articulation of forms of state and forms of government from Cesare Pinelli's own perspective [18 hours];
- The third part will address the rights and duties of digital platforms and their users, also with reference at the so-called digital constitutionalism [18 hours].
Prerequisites
The student must have passed the Institutions of Public Law exam.
In particular, a revisiting of topics relating to the general theory of law and the political organisation of forms of state and government is required.
Books
- Cesare Pinelli, Diritto pubblico. Seconda edizione, Il Mulino, 2022: cap. X della Parte II e Parte III;
- Cesare Pinelli, Forme di Stato e forme di governo. Corso di diritto costituzionale comparato. Seconda edizione, Jovene, 2009;
- Cesare Pinelli and Ugo Ruffolo, I diritti nelle piattaforme, Giappichelli, 2023.
Frequency
Class attendance is not compulsory.
Exam mode
A mark of no less than 18/30 is required to pass the exam.
The student must demonstrate that he or she has acquired a basic knowledge of the institutes of constitutional law, which allows him or her to range over other areas of law and to reflect with suggestive insights on the general issues of the subiect.
In order to obtain a mark of 30/30 cum laude, the student must demonstrate excellent knowledge of all the topics covered in the course and contained in the texts included in the examination syllabus, in order to link them logically and coherently.
Lesson mode
Teaching will be characterised by lectures. In the course of the lectures, topics relating to the subiect of the course will be addressed in the form of debates among the students, so as to test their learning ability during the course of the lectures and the development of critical insights that are also useful outside Constitutional Law.
Channel 3
ELISA OLIVITO
Lecturers' profile
Program - Frequency - Exams
Course program
The course will focus on the in-depth study of a subject which is crucial for constitutional law: the relationship between the permanence of the constitution and the need for change in the legal system.
This issue will be examined in three parts and from two different perspectives.
In the first part of the course, theoretical issues will be addressed which concern, on the one hand, the textual amendment of the constitution and, on the other, the constitutional changes that translate into tacit constitutional amendments or into ruptures or suspensions of the constitution. In this regard, some of the most well-known theories will be addressed and discussed. They will be analyzed in a broader historical-constitutional context and in the light of some paradigmatic questions.
In the second part of the course, the constitutional relationship between stability and change will be analyzed with reference to fundamental rights. In this regard, both theoretical understandings and the guarantees inscribed in the Italian Constitution will be discussed. Particular attention will therefore be paid to social rights and related guarantees.
In the third part, these issues will be addressed from the point of view of the city, the relationship between the center and urban/social peripheries, as well as the urban declinations of public order. Relevance will be given to the constitutional perspective on housing rights and smart cities, also in consideration of regulatory developments and case-law.
Prerequisites
Preparatory exam: ISTITUZIONI DI DIRITTO PUBBLICO.
At the beginning of the course and for the final examination students must have already acquired the knowledge of the fundamental notions of Italian public law.
Books
To prepare the exam, the study of ALL the texts listed below is required (to be updated at the beginning of the second semester).
a) G. AZZARITI, Appunti per le lezioni. Parlamento, Presidente della Repubblica, Corte costituzionale, Torino, Giappichelli, ultima edizione;
b) A.A. CERVATI, S.P. PANUNZIO, P. RIDOLA, Studi sulla riforma costituzionale. Itinerari e temi per l’innovazione costituzionale in Italia, Torino, Giappichelli, 2001, only pages 1-191;
c) A. BALDASSARRE, voci “Diritti inviolabili” e “Diritti sociali”, in Enciclopedia giuridica, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, vol. XI, 1989, rispettivamente pages 1-43, pp. 1-34;
d) E. OLIVITO, Il diritto costituzionale all’abitare: spunti teorico-dogmatici e itinerari giurisprudenziali, in Politica del diritto, 3/2016, pages 337-422;
e) E. OLIVITO, (Dis)eguaglianza, città e periferie sociali: la prospettiva costituzionale, in Eguaglianza e discriminazioni nell’epoca contemporanea, Napoli, Editoriale scientifica, 2021, pp. 555-637;
f) F. PIZZOLATO, Città e diritti fondamentali: le ambivalenze della politicità dei diritti, in Istituzioni del federalismo, n. 1/2022, pp. 155-186.
Frequency
Attendance is not mandatory.
For attending students, discussions or study groups will be organized in presence.
Exam mode
Oral final examination on the syllabus as resulting from the textbooks indicated.
For the purposes of the final assessments, the following elements will be taken into consideration: positive assessment of the participation in study groups (for attending students); presentation and critical reasoning skills, legal language skills (for all students).
Lesson mode
The course will take place in presence.
The e-learning website of Sapienza and the interactive involvement of attending students through study groups or discussions on current issues will support the frontal teaching.
Channel 4
GIANLUCA BASCHERINI
Lecturers' profile
Program - Frequency - Exams
Course program
From the perspective of the historical study of constitutional law, which is necessary for critical reflection, the legal status of the citizen proves to be the meeting point between the political order, individuals and their rights and duties. Over time, conceptions of the subject of law, the relationship between the individual and authority, and the advantages and burdens arising from a subject's membership of a given order have profoundly changed. In particular, from the post-World War II period to the present day, the relationships between these elements have become progressively more complicated: the relationship between subject and order has been radically rethought, the sphere of citizenship has expanded and the rights/duties attached to it have increased. At the same time, the tension between the rights of the human being and the rights of the citizen, between universality and particularism of rights (and duties) has been rekindled, and the processes of European integration have profoundly transformed traditional conceptions of ‘citizen’ and ‘foreigner’. In turn, these changes call into question the existing disciplines of citizenship, its criteria of attribution and the traditional paradigms of citizenship as belonging and as entitlement to rights/duties.
The course aims to investigate the dynamics mentioned above from a threefold point of view. The first part of the course will be devoted to reconstructing the main representations of the ‘citizen’, of his relations with the political order and of his rights/duties that have succeeded one another over time and in different legal contexts. The second part of the course will delve into the general theoretical framework of constitutional rights/duties: the theoretical paradigms of reference, the main classifications of these subjective legal situations, the limits of rights and the instruments of their protection. The third part of the course will be devoted to an in-depth study of the framework of rights/duties in the Italian Constitution and their current relationship with citizenship, taking into account regulatory and jurisprudential developments and the reflections of scholars who have dealt with the subject from different angles.
Finally, in-depth meetings and seminars will be organised, also with experts in the field, to which those attending the course will be invited. The necessary material will be indicated during the lectures. Participation in the seminars will be taken into account in the final assessment.
Prerequisites
In order to attend the course and take the examination, it is necessary to have already taken the examination and acquired the fundamentals of Institutions of Public Law
Books
In order to take the exam, it is necessary to have studied all of the following texts:
- F. Rigano e M. Terzi, Lineamenti dei diritti costituzionali, II ed. Milano, Franco Angeli, 2022
- P. Costa, Cittadinanza, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005
- The parts of the textbook studied for the Institutions of Public Law examination deal with the fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution, constitutional revision (procedure and limits), the Constitutional Court and constitutional rights and duties.
Consultation of the Constitution is also necessary for the preparation of the examination.
Further doctrinal and jurisprudential material may be indicated in the course of the lectures
Frequency
Attendance at the course is not compulsory, but strongly recommended.
Exam mode
oral questioning on issues related to the examination programme
Lesson mode
The course is structured on face-to-face teaching, with constant stimulation of active student participation. Seminars will be held by scholars who have explored the various profiles covered by the course. Finally, students will be advised of scientific or cultural initiatives related to the topics addressed.
Channel 5
FRANCESCO BILANCIA
Lecturers' profile
Program - Frequency - Exams
Prerequisites
A very good knowledge of Public Law and European Institutions and Politics, as by the Program of the first exam of Public law and its handbook
Books
1) F. Bilancia, Sovranità, “Di alcune grandi categorie del Diritto costituzionale: Sovranità Rappresentanza Territorio”, in Rivista AIC, Fasc. 3 del 2017.
2) G. Ferrara, La sovranità popolare e le sue forme, in Costituzionalismo.it, fasc. n. 1 del 2006.
3) F. Bilancia, Spending review e pareggio di bilancio. Cosa rimane dell’autonomia locale?, in Revista d’Estudis Autonòmics i Federals, REAF – IEA Journal, n. 20 del 2014, 60 ss.
4) F. Bilancia, Integrazione giuridica e funzione di governo. Autorità e legalità in Europa, ES, Napoli, 2022.
All the book and the papers, open access, will be provided through the University learning platform.
Frequency
In presence, attending classes in the provided room of Law faculty
Exam mode
Final exam: attending students, already participating in case presentations during the workshops, will be partly evaluated on these discussions; they shall pass also a final oral examination, managed through about three questions on the fields dealt by the literature they have to study. For the first part of final exam NOT attending students will be tested on the literature indicated above.
Lesson mode
In presence classes and seminars
- Lesson code97857
- Academic year2025/2026
- Courselaw
- CurriculumSingle curriculum
- Year2nd year
- Semester2nd semester
- SSDIUS/08
- CFU9