Political Science

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course, students have a thorough understanding of the decision-making processes of European Union policies and the actors involved in EU policies. From the economic and social to the digital and multimedia fields, students are able to evaluate the impact of regulation at European level on the different sectors of society. The course is divided into two parts and ends with two seminars on themes dealt with beforehand. 

Part I. Understanding the European Union: 

• The foundations of the EU project: Federal integration, a conceptual approach resulting from a mix of economic integration and federalism. The two levels of governance: central and national levels. The principle of subsidiarity. The evolution of the EU’s policy portfolio and policy processes over the year.
• Who does what in Brussels: The main institutions the EU, their role and tasks. The influence exercised by the lobbies and civil society organizations in shaping the policy agenda and the decisional process. Policy roles, functions and the distribution of power within the various institutions and amongst the Member States.
• The EU’s decision making process: The various decisional processes and procedures. The setting of the EU political agenda, its strategic objectives and policy priorities. Regulation, self-regulation and co-regulation. The life of a EU law and its impact of the life of its people.
• Economic integration as catalyst for further political integration: The process of completion of the internal market, the backbone of the EU. The 4 fundamental freedoms and Community method, the main decision making process. The ordinary legislative procedure and new forms of governance.
• A Union of values: Democracy, human rights and the Rule of Law are identitarian, foundation elements of the EU and of our “way of living”.

Part II. EU Media Policy: balancing freedom of expression and other fundamental rights online. 5 case studies.

• The process of liberalization and regulation of the European audiovisual market.
• The Copyright reform (protection and monetization of copyrighted works distributed over the Internet, while protecting freedom of expression and freedom of the arts). Copyright and Artificial Intelligence.
• Internet and digital platforms regulation. The Digital Services Act, a comprehensive regulatory framework on content moderation and protection of citizens’ rights online, including from disinformation.
• The Media Freedom Act, a brand new law enhancing media freedom, pluralism and journalists protection across the EU.
• The regulation of artificial intelligence in the EU (the AI Act).

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 provides students with the opportunity to develop a critical knowledge of European integration with particular attention to the most recent crises, related to finance, immigration, and the violations of the rule of law. At the end of the course, students have acquired: a) wide perspective on the intersection of political, legal, historical, and economic factors in the management of the crises; b) skills useful for the identification of the legal and political factors influencing European integration; c) fundamental techniques of reading and understanding of European, constitutional, and legal sources of law; d) skills of analysis of European and domestic case law; e) critical skills for the comparative analysis of historical, legal, and political factors of integration processes. 

This course introduces students to American government, with a focus on U.S. political culture, institutions, and policymaking. Particular emphasis is given to the historical and intellectual development of the American political system and its evolution to the present day. The course examines how checks and balances mediate power between the branches of the federal government (the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary), as well as how the federal government interacts with and shapes decision-making among the states. Attention is given the role of the media, interest groups, and political parties in influencing a range of political outcomes in the United States.

This course seeks to provide students with grounding in the basic tools of understanding social protest and social movement. In addition to Hong Kong, cases are drawn from many different countries—from the American civil rights movement to the 2007 democratic demonstrations in Burma, from Gandhi’s satyagraha (non-violent resistance) to the more recent “color revolutions” in Europe and Central Asia. Students also learn about influential social movement leaders past and present, such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mandela, Mao, Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi and more. Students who have taken CCCH9009 Protests, rebellions and revolution are not allowed to take this course.

This course consists of three parts. The first part covers the basics of the EU, including major theories of European integration, its core institutions, decision-making procedures, and legal order. In the second part, this course explores the major bilateral relations between the EU and third parties. The last part focuses on selected policy areas critical to the EU’s internal stability and external posture.

In the French legal system, contract law is the foundation for the comprehension of other fields of law, which often turn to its provisions to resolve complex legal issues that arise in business practice. For this reason, contract law is generally taught in the second year of studies, with the purpose of familiarizing students as soon as possible with legal terms such as “obligation”, “contract”, “liability”, which are approached from different angles throughout their university education. The teaching of this course in English allows the students, French or foreigners, to improve their formation in contract law in the language used in international business and to deepen their knowledge in the particularities of French Contract Law through different aspects of comparative law (Common Law, EU law, legislation of other European countries). References to other national legislations, especially to the ones of Common Law countries, give students the chance to identify similarities and differences on specific topics of contract law and develop an international culture in the field. Based on interactive lectures of two hours per week and on material support shared online every week, students are encouraged to think, compare, and understand profoundly the contractual techniques and methods. This course provides students with a critical qualification and ability to express themselves in English on sophisticated issues of French and comparative contract law. The ongoing process for the revision of the French Civil Law of the obligations, accomplished during Spring 2016, constitutes an excellent occasion for profound and comparative thought on fundamental concepts of Contract Law utilized by most of the legal systems all around the globe.

Political Philosophy is conceived as the application of philosophical investigation to politics and thus as a study of the contribution that philosophy may give to political practice. This implies both a clarification of the terms used in our everyday political vocabulary and an attempt at designing models of a just society. The course provides students with the following abilities: a) notions on methodology in historical investigation; b) ability to analytically read a text while at the same time situating it into the historical and linguistic context of the age; c) knowledge of the perennial tasks of political philosophy; d) an examination of a specific topic: the origins of democracy. The course is divided into two modules: 1. Relativism and its Discontents: this module examines the sophist Protagoras, the first coherent relativist, who argued that "man is the measure of all things", and the answers to his relativism elaborated by Plato and Aristotle; and how 20th century philosophers revived those positions, specifically investigating Richard Rorty, Leo Strauss, and Alasdair MacIntyre. The first class is devoted to a clarification of the notion of 'political philosophy' and to an account of the methodology in the history of political thought. 2. The just society: unending quest: this module is devoted to the search for a just society, reading John Rawls, the author who put back the notion of justice at the center of political philosophy and who wrote the milestone treatment on the subject in the 20th century.

This course introduces key theories and concepts related to health governance through interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, political science, and related fields. It covers topics such as global health, infectious disease governance, state capacity, and the role of non-governmental organizations. Substantive issues include traditional Chinese medicine, the governance of infectious diseases in China, and international cooperation in global health.

This course addresses the core concerns of power, domination, inequality, class formation, and transnational political economy, while grounding them ethnographically in urban space. Rather than treating these concepts abstractly, students encounter them through detailed case studies of how colonial spatial logics persist in contemporary cities and how urban residents navigate, reproduce, and contest these structures. The course traces connections between colonial urbanism and contemporary urban transformation across the Global South and in Berlin itself. Students develop analytical tools for understanding how political-economic processes materialize in urban form, social practice, and everyday experience.

This seminar explores the complex intersections of gender, nationhood, and emancipatory notions in contemporary Iran. The course critically engages with how Iranian women have historically navigated, contested, and redefined the meanings of feminism, resistance, and agency within varying political, religious, and cultural landscapes. Topics include: politics of veiling and unveiling, the role of women in protest and revolution, and the intersections of gender with class, religion, and sexuality. Emphasis is placed on Iranian women as intellectuals, activists, artists, and everyday agents of change.