law

FABIO FRANCESCHI

Give to the student juridical essential competences to both individual and collective religious freedom protection and about the activities of the religious confessions within the Italian law.

Knowledge and Understanding: Learning of the essential cognitive elements related to the protection of religious freedom (individual and collective) and the concrete activity of religious subjects (individuals, entities, religious denominations) in the Italian legal system, through Course attendance and personal study.
Applied knowledge and learning objectives: Development of the ability to understand and interpret the relevant national and international sources, as well as their jurisprudential applications.
Autonomy of judgment: Acquisition of the ability to critically address the various problematic aspects related to the legal regulation of the religious phenomenon in Italy, in the context of an increasingly multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious society.

No prerequisites are foreseen. However, prior knowledge of Institutions of Public Law is strongly recommended.

The Ecclesiastical Law Course aims to initiate students in the knowledge and in-depth study of the essential elements of the legal regulation of the religious phenomenon in Italy. The main topics covered in the general part of the course are: 1. “Ecclesiastical law": introductory notions. From “ecclesiastical law” to “law and religion.” - 2. Religion and the organization of civil power over the centuries. - State order and the religious phenomenon: 3. Religious subjects and public powers. - 4. The Republican Constitution and the religious phenomenon. - 5. Individual and collective religious freedom. Freedom of conscience and the right to conscientious objection - 6. The principle of secularism of the state. - 7. Vertical ecclesiastical law: the distinction of orders and the principle of bilaterality. The state and minority religious denominations. - 8. Horizontal ecclesiastical law. The protection and promotion of religious freedom. - Religious symbols and observances - 10. Law, religion, economics. - 11. Religious marriage and its civil efficacy: concordat marriage and marriage before ministers of religious denominations other than Catholic. The new family models. - 12. Criminal law and the religious factor. - 13. Law and religion among globalization, multiculturalism and inter-culture. The special part of the course is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of religious bodies, with special regard to the ways and mechanisms of finding economic resources of civilly recognized ecclesiastical bodies in the modern economic system.

Recommended texts for exam preparation
 General part (student's choice): P. CONSORTI, Diritto e religione. Basi e prospettive, Laterza, Bari, 2023, oppure A. FUCCILLO, Diritto, religioni, culture. Il fattore religioso nell’esperienza giuridica, V ed., Giappichelli, Torino, 2025 (ad eccezione dei capitoli 3, 4, 6 e 12).
 Special part: F. FRANCESCHI, Il finanziamento degli enti confessionali fra tradizione e innovazione, I: Gli enti cattolici, Giappichelli, Torino, 2024, limitatamente alle Pt. 1 (Gli enti ecclesiastici cattolici), 3 (Le nuove frontiere dell’operatività finanziaria degli enti ecclesiastici) e 4 (Il finanziamento degli enti ecclesiastici fra tradizione e innovazione, ad esclusione del cap. 1).
A partially different program is planned for attending students, which will be communicated by the Professor at the beginning of class.

A. Bettetini, Ente ecclesiastico, beni religiosi e attività di culto: profili giuridici, Milano: Giuffrè, 2019
G. Casuscelli, Nozioni di diritto ecclesiastico, Torino: Giappichelli, 2015
C. Cardia, Principi di diritto ecclesiastico: tradizione europea legislazione italiana, Torino: Giappichelli, 2015
F. Franceschi, Manuale di diritto ecclesiastico, Molfetta: Nel Diritto editore, 2022
M. Ricca, Pantheon. Agenda della laicità interculturale, Palermo: Torri del Vento, 2013
E. Vitali, A.G. Chizzoniti, Diritto ecclesiastico, Milano: Giuffre, 2019
P. Consorti (ed.), Costituzione, religione e cambiamenti nel diritto e nelle società, Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2019
S. Berlingò, G. Casuscelli, Diritto ecclesiastico italiano, Torino: Giappichelli, 2020

Lectures with slides. In-depth seminars on specific topics.

The course is scheduled in the second semester.
Attendance is free. For attending students there is a partially different program, which will be communicated by the teacher at the beginning of the lessons. Participation of 75% (at least) of the total lessons is required to be considered attending students

Oral Examination.
For attending students, mid-term tests are scheduled, with arrangements to be made with the professor.

1. Ecclesiastical law: definition
2. Differences between ecclesiastical law and canon law
3. The different systems of relationship between temporal power and spiritual power over the centuries: caesaropapism; jurisdictionalism; theocracy; separatism; coordination
4. The development of the Italian legislative policy in ecclesiastical matters. Historical framework.
5. The Lateran Pacts of 1929
6. The republic constitution and the religious factor
7. The season of reforms
8. The evolutionary profiles of the discipline
9. The sources of ecclesiastical law
10. The Italian Constitution and the religious phenomenon
11. Art. 7 of the Constitution. Relations between the State and the Catholic Church in Italy
12. Art. 8 of the Constitution. Relations between the State and religions other than the Catholic
13. The agreements (Article 8, paragraph 3)
14. Art. 19 of the Constitution. The principle of religious freedom.
15. Freedom and conscientious objection
16. The freedom of negative beliefs. Atheism
17. Art. 20 of the Constitution. The prohibition of discrimination against religious entities
18. The principle of secular statehood
19. Spiritual assistance in separated communities
20. The Holy See and the Vatican City State
21. The ministers of worship in Italian law
22. The economic support of the clergy
23. The notion of religious denomination
24. Religions other than Catholic
25. The confessional entities
26. Ecclesiastical Entities and the Third Sector
27. The financing system of the Catholic Church
28. Places and buildings of worship
29. The concordat marriage
30. Jurisdiction over concordat marriage. The problem of the so-called reservation of jurisdiction
31. The deliberation procedure
32. Ecclesiastical sentences of matrimonial nullity and public order
33. Marriage before ministers of religious confessions other than Catholic
34. Civil unions and de facto cohabitation
35. Religious freedom and health treatments
36. Symbols and religious observances
37. The penal norms placed to protect the religious sentiment
38. The so-called crimes religiously oriented (or motivated)

• “Ecclesiastical law”: introductory concepts. From “ecclesiastical law” to “law and religion”.


• Religion and the organisation of civil power over the centuries: an overview. 


• The state system and the religious phenomenon. Religious entities and public authorities.


• The Republican Constitution and religion.


• Individual and collective religious freedom. Freedom of conscience and the right to conscientious objection.


• The principle of secularism of the State


• Vertical ecclesiastical law: the distinction between orders and the principle of bilateralism. The State and minority religious denominations. 


• Horizontal ecclesiastical law. The protection and promotion of religious freedom.


• Religious symbols and observances 


• Law, religion, economics


• Religious marriage and its civil effects: concordat marriage and marriage before ministers of religious denominations other than Catholicism. New family models


• Criminal law and religion


• Law and religion amid globalisation, multiculturalism and interculturalism


• Confessional bodies. Financing methods and mechanisms in the modern economic system