85518 - Public Law and Protection of Fundamental Rights

Learning outcomes

This course provides a wide-ranging survey of conceptual foundations and issues in contemporary public law and human rights law. The purpose of the first part of the course is to provide students the ability to understand the functioning of the State, its policies and their concrete applications, even managing to understand the real meaning of the institutional changes and their weight in the legal order. The second part of the course will be dedicated to the study of the means of protection of human rights, in the national as well as in the international and European context. This course explores major features of human rights' protection through close examination of selected decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. A special focus will be dedicated to the study of cultural rights and of the rights of immigrants both in the National and in the European context.

Course contents

In the first part of the course the students will study the bases of international human rights law .

There will be a special focus on means of protection of human rights, with particularly reference to the different regional contexts: the European Human Rights System; the Inter-American Human Rights System; the African Human Rights System; the not completely evolved Arab and Asian Human Rights Systems.

This course explores major features of human rights' protection and there will be a close examination of selected decisions of international and supranational Courts.

In the last part of the course a special focus will be dedicated to the study of Environmental rights and sustainable development; cultural rights and rights of immigrants.

Readings/Bibliography

The students that will NOT attend the lessons shall prepare

 Rhona K. M. Smith, International human rights law, Oxford, last ed.

Any additional textbooks will be indicated before the start of classes

The students that WILL ATTEND the lessons shall know the topic analyzed in class and articles and essays that will be indicated during the course and that will be available from the web page of the course (virtuale.unibo.it)

Moreover, all students are advised to study the program reading also the following text: R. Smith Core Documents on European & International Human Rights 2022-23, Hart, 2022, 8th ed.

!!!! If there are students that haven't followed any law course before, it is highly recommended to follow the crash course Basic elements of public law

Teaching methods

The course will be held both in the form of the traditional oral lecture, and involving students in active participation, especially discussing some leading cases on specific important topics.

During the lesson there will be power-point presentations and the students will be given summaries and case law material in www.virtuale.unibo.it

Attending students will be asked to work in team and deepen cases and topics. Their activity will be taken into consideration with regard to the final examination.

 

The course participates in the University's teaching experimentation project

 

 

Final Dissertations

Dissertations are assigned after one or more interviews aimed at identifying a topic of interest to the student.

For an initial interview to explore possible research topics for the thesis, students are asked to make an appointment by emailing caterina.drigo@unibo.it

Guidelines to which undergraduates are required to adhere both when writing their thesis and when submitting their application:

https://corsi.unibo.it/2cycle/InternationalCooperation/information-on-writing-a-dissertation/icontact_thesisguidelines-10-07-2024.pdf/@@download/file/ICONTACT_ThesisGuidelines%20(10.07.2024).pdf

1. Once the dissertation topic has been approved by the professor, graduating students must periodically inform the supervisor of the progress of the work. The delivery of the thesis is done chapter by chapter, thus avoiding handing over the complete text for correction. Individual parts of the thesis may be sent by e-mail, or delivered in hard copy during office hours by appointment to be arranged in advance. The supervisor will correct the individual chapters of the thesis and provide the student with further indications on the parts of the text to be modified and/or supplemented.

The thesis will then be handed over to the professor with all its corrected parts, for final approval and subsequent delivery to the administrative office.

2. Graduating students are requested not to apply for graduation until they have received express authorisation to do so by e-mail from the professor. Authorisation will only be granted to those who have completed and submitted their thesis to the professor. Applications submitted without this authorisation will be automatically rejected.

3. The submission of any application for the purpose of writing the dissertation abroad must be agreed with the professor.

4. Any request for correlation is only possible if strictly necessary for the purposes of the thesis and must be agreed with the professor.

5. Graduating students are requested to contact the student secretariat for all matters concerning compliance with the graduation deadlines.

In any case,

The dissertation version, approved by the main supervisor, must be uploaded in due time by the candidate on the dedicated website. The dissertation upload can be repeated by the midnight of the deadline’s expiration day (remember: pays attention to the CET hours indicated); the last uploaded file remains valid. The delivery of the final version of dissertation to the main supervisor should take place for final check no later than 30 days before the deadline for the file upload. The candidate is personally in charge of the delivery of the final draft to the administrative bodies of Università di Bologna.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION Prof. Drigo writes letters of recommendation/presentation EXCLUSIVELY for her own graduates. This is because in the recommendation/presentation letters the professor must be able to prove that she is thoroughly familiar with the academic (particularly research) qualities of the student.

Assessment methods

Lectures will be held in the fall term 2024/2025, therefore students may take the exam starting from December 2024.

The exam will be held orally.

The purpose of the oral exam is to verify the student's ability to apply his or her knowledge and to make the necessary logical-deductive connections.

The final grade will be determined taking into account the following elements:

- Preparation on a very limited number of topics covered in the course and analytical skills that emerge only with the help of the teacher, expressed in an overall correct language → 18-19;

- Preparation on a limited number of topics covered in the course and ability to autonomous analysis only on purely executive matters, expression in correct language → 20-24;

- Preparation on a large number of topics covered in the course, ability to make autonomous choices of critical analysis, mastery of specific terminology → 25-29;

- Substantially exhaustive preparation on the topics addressed in the course, ability to make autonomous choices of critical analysis and connection, full mastery of specific terminology and ability to argue and self-reflection → 30-30L.

For attending students, the final grade will take into account also active participation in the classroom and presentation of group work, as indicated on the first day of class.

Registration for the final examination must be carried out via the Almaesami application (https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm ).

Teaching tools

All students will be provided with power point presentations and case law material analyzed during the lessons.

Students with a form of disability or specific learning disabilities (DSA) who are requesting academic adjustments or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff in order to properly address them and agree on the appropriate measures with the competent bodies.

 

Office Hours: the students of the course will have to make an appointment writing an e-mail to caterina.drigo@unibo.it.

They will be received on line, Tuesday from 9.00 to 11.00 a.m. via MS_TEAMS

Office hours

See the website of Caterina Drigo