Insegnamento a.a. 2026-2027

• The origins of constitutional justice.
• The models of constitutional justice
• Constitutional review as an essential component of constitutional democracy
• Democratic backsliding and constitutional courts
• The Italian Constitutional Court. Origins, sources and organization.
• Access to Constitutional Courts
• The incidental method of judicial review, individual complaints and the direct method of judicial review.
• Amici curiae
• Forms and methods of constitutional interpretation.
• Constitutional reasoning and the principle of proportionality
• Separate opinions in constitutional and supreme courts.
• The types and effects of constitutional courts’ decisions.
• Constitutional Court and the domain of politics.
• The Courts and the media
• Constitutional adjudication in Europe.

• Understand the role of Constitutional Courts in contemparary democracies
• Compare the models of constitutional justice in Europe.
• Describe and understand the composition of Constitutional Courts .
• Describe and understand Constitutional Courts decision making process
• Decribe and understand Constitutional Courts legal reasoning.
• Explain the relationship and the interplay between domestic constitutional courts and supranational courts.
• Understand and discuss the case law of supreme, constitutional and supranational courts on some selected topics.

• Critically analyse the case law of supreme, constitutional and supranational courts.
• Interpret the contemporary scenario through the lenses of constitutional adjudication
• Elaborate solutions to legal issues arising from practical situations and evaluate their pros and cons.
• Carry out autonomous research on a given topic.
• Engage in a discussion on a constitutional topic with both instructors and peers.
• Develop a constitutional argument in a judicial context. 

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Company visits
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

Along with face-to-face lectures, supported by the use of slides and interactive presentations, students are invited to attend guest speakers’ talks (in class or remotely), held by prominent experts (professors, judges etc.).

In the second part of the course, some classes will be discussion-based. Students will be asked to study the assigned materials (judicial decisions and scholarly articles) in advance and discuss them in class with the instructors and their fellow students.

A dedicated session will focus on the use of AI in the analysis and study of constitutional jurisprudence.

Finally, a visit to the Constitutional Court will be organized, subject to sufficient student interest and the Court's availability. During the visit, students will have the opportunity to attend a public hearing of the Court and meet with a Constitutional Court judge.

Attendance will be recorded at the beginning of each class. To qualify as “attending”, students must participation to at least 75% of the classes.

Attending students will be evaluated based on their in-class participation (up to 5 points) and on an exam (up to 27 points).

a.   In-class participation (5/32 points): continuous assessment, based on students’ active participation in class discussions. Especially in the second part of the course, students will be requested to read and study in advance the materials made available through Blackboard prior to each class: their contribution to the discussion will be then evaluated through the Talkie platform.

b.  Exam (27/32 points): students can decide to take a final oral exam (b.1) or an intermediate written exam + a partial oral exam (b.2).

• b.1 Final oral exam: it covers all the topics discussed in the course and assigns up to 27 points.
• b.2 Intermediate written exam & partial oral exam:

    -   the intermediate written text covers the topics discussed in the first half of the course and consists of an open question and some multiple-choice questions. It assigns up to 16 points.

    -  the partial oral exam covers the topics discussed in the second half of the course and assigns up to 11 points.

Students who sit for the intermediate written exam (b.2) can reject the resulting mark and take the final oral exam (b.1).

The final mark is determined by the evaluation of an oral exam. 

The teaching materials will be indicated in the syllabus at the beginning of the course. Most of the papers will be available in open access or at the Bocconi library.

A reading list for non attenging students will be indicated in the syllabus at the beginning of the course. Most of the papers will be available in open access or at the Bocconi library.