Legal Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course develops critical knowledge of the fundamental institutes of Food Law with particular attention to the new profiles that the discipline presents and to European and international regulations of specific relevance. The approach to the subject is interdisciplinary, not only theoretical but also practical-operational, enabling students to acquire mastery and awareness in the use of legislative, jurisprudential, and contractual practice tools. The course content includes: principles and rules of European and global food law; right to food; food security; food safety; food sovereignty; global food law trends; European food law rules; food sustainability; food law and antitrust rules; and contract farming. At the end of the module, the course covers the regulation of national, European, and international agrifood markets, with particular emphasis placed on agrifood security, producer responsibility, and competition policies; and how to handle different sources of agrifood law, how to be familiar with bodies issuing specific regulation in the sector, and how to contribute to organizational policies to this regard.

The course focuses on the principal elements of EU constitutional law, namely: sources of EU law, EU competences, institutions, law-making procedures, judicial procedures, implementation of EU law in the Member States, and the essential aspects of the main EU policies. The course helps develop the ability to analyze the main implications of the EU institutional structure and to determine the overall effects of the law into the municipal legal orders of the Member States; and to illustrate the main trends of the interplay between the Union and its Member States (both internally and on the international scene).

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course offers an overview of the structure and main features of EU financial regulation, along with an in-depth examination of some of its main pillars. Topics covered by the course are the regulation of securities offerings, investment firms and investment services, investment funds, and securities markets. At the end of the course unit, students will possess an in-depth knowledge about the legal regime applicable to financial operators and relevant swap transactions, against the background of the applicable international and supranational legal instruments; they are thus able to understand financial operators’ behavior in a given political and economic context, and to envisage its impact on the regulatory framework concerning the functioning of financial markets.

This course examines human rights, their connection to the concept of citizenship, how and when they originated, and who their bearers are.

This course explores the main international and European legal mechanisms in place to protect from different forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, disability, or race. It focuses on the principles of equality and non-discrimination,  and introduces the subject through the evolution of women’s rights and its international recognition. Activities include discussion of case studies and in-class debates.

Drawing from law, sociology of law, criminology, political science, and migration studies more generally, this multidisciplinary course provides a wholesome understanding of the many debates and dilemmas surrounding international migration and its management today. The course addresses a broad range of topics and themes, including the legal regulation and institutional management of migration; ordering through labels, terms, and categories; sovereignty, control, and externalization; citizenship and statelessness; securitization and criminalization of migration; smuggling, trafficking, and instrumentalization debates; as well as gendered, racial, and other aspects of migration and its management. It covers a combination of both canonical and newer academic texts in this area and draws additional insights from policy documents, reports, fiction literature, and films.

Sustainable development is the red thread throughout this course. The course builds on the principle of sustainable development and analyzes how it is reflected in main international treaties on the protection of the environment. Central questions on legal methodology, legal sources, and environmental principles are addressed. The course introduces more specific areas in international environmental law, such as those addressing the conservation of biological diversity, protection of the marine environment, reduction of plastic pollution, and addressing climate change. In addition, overarching topics include the relationship between environmental protection and human rights, and international trade and investment law.

The course introduces the fundamental system and main principles, particularly the legal systems and the practice related to inbound investment and outbound investment of China after the Reform and Opening Up in 1978, as well as the interactions among foreign investment laws, other domestic laws, and international investment agreements. Topics: history and source of underlying international investment law, the primary substantive principles and standards which serve to protect investors and investments under international investment agreements, such as most-favored-nation treatment, national treatment, fair and equitable treatment, expropriation and nationalization, investment insurance and dispute settlement as well as wider issues relating to the criticisms of the investment treaty arbitration system. 

This course examines the interplay of religion, law and politics in contemporary India, Sri Lanka, America, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere. Themes include secularism, religious freedom, pluralism and others.

This course is designed to understand the rationale and the most important rules in patent law, trademark law and copyright law, mostly focusing on US and EU law. It focuses on understanding how to identify and analyze statutory law and most relevant case law pertaining to most pressing issues in patent, trademark and copyright law.