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Starting from the second half of the last century, a great emphasis has been put on Shari’a as a central element in the legal system of many Muslim-majority states. The common approach toconsidering Islamic legal systems, however, is still dominated by a monolithical conceptualization of Islamic law, where the description of Shari’a is derived from abstract reasoning on what Shari’a is or ought to be. The aim of this article, after a discussion of the concept of law in Islamic legal thought and an overview of the different interpretations of Islamic law as elaborated within divergent cultures (Arab Republic of Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia), is to advance the idea of Islamic Law as an essentially contested concept, and to detach its analysis from any formalism in favour of an acknowledgment of its antagonistic, unfixed and ever-evolving nature.

The contemporary problem of natural resources, especially as regards the “water-question”, involves relevant philosophical-legal and political questions. Different levels of analysis (i.e. historical-legal, theoretical-legal and anthropological) highlight the complex nature of the protection of water as a “legal good” as well as its political corollaries and, in particular, the increasingly more reflexive approach to the idea of “good”. In a wider perspective it is therefore necessary to call into question the pair “subject”-“environment” in order to rethink this relationship and, above all, to elaborate a new model of legal and political responsibility.

Non è passato inosservato alla pubblicistica il clima di peculiare “sintonia” che ha connotato, lo scorso 10 giugno, la visita ufficiale del Santo Padre al Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella: per averne riscontro, del resto, sarebbe bastato (già solo) dare una scorsa alle trascrizioni dei discorsi tenuti dalle due Autorità, dov’è facilmente rintracciabile una singolare convergenza di toni, registro e – in alcuni passaggi, finanche di - contenuti. Così, riguardo a questi ultimi, ad es., diversi organi di stampa hanno colto la consonante messa in evidenza di un (basilare) dato “fattuale”, qual è la proficuità del sostegno reciproco che Stato e Chiesa seguitano a darsi nel Paese, a fronte di crescenti urgenze/istanze spirituali e materiali, puntualmente esemplificate. In pochi, tuttavia, a tale ultimo riguardo, hanno colto l’ulteriore consonanza dell’esigenza, avvertita da entrambi, di porre in luce la ragione giuridica principe alla base di questo fruttuoso mutuo sostegno, ovverosia l’Accordo di Villa Madama. Quale che sia la ragione della mancata annotazione (forse un automatismo, consono alla c.d. stagione della “post-verità”, di promozione dei dati anzitutto “emozionali”), quel che rileva è l’occasione perduta di registrare, immediatamente dopo, una singolare dissomiglianza tra i due testi. Infatti, mentre Papa Francesco avverte altresì l’esigenza di specificare che l’Accordo richiede espressamente questo mutuo contegno, con un’apposita previsione, i.e. l’art.1, che impegna lo Stato e la Chiesa a collaborare, nel rispetto della “distinzione degli ordini” di cui all’art. 7, I co., Cost., per la «promozione dell’uomo» ed il «bene del Paese»; il Presidente Mattarella, invece, appresso al richiamo fatto al ruolo del Concordato, quale “prezioso quadro di collaborazione”, passa direttamente a rimarcare l’importanza della presenza della Chiesa “a fianco delle Istituzioni” (già in generale nei frangenti più difficili della vita nazionale, e in particolare) in occasione “dell’emergenza del terremoto che ha colpito” nel 2016 il Centro Italia. Uno spunto (questo dell’indicata dissomiglianza tra i testi) che, laddove colto, avrebbe probabilmente condotto a prestare maggiore attenzione non solo ai temi scaturenti dalla puntualizzazione fatta dal Pontefice e dal differente rilievo ad hoc posto dal Presidente Mattarella; ma anche ad ulteriori argomenti-chiave, non esplicitati ma comunque avvertibili– specialmente dagli “addetti ai lavori” – sottesi al tema della collaborazione crescente tra i due Ordini, in vista del “bene comune”.

This paper proposes an explanation concerning relations betwenn law and literature in Balzac’s works. As Adorno argues in his essay on Balzac, “realism” reflects a “loss of reality” and it is linked to the “Real”, a concept which by its very nature is not susceptible of definition. The papers discusses the meaning of Balzac’s concept of law through this opposition between “Reality” and “Real”.

This paper focuses on the evolution of the case law of the European Court of Justice and the decisions of the European Commission in the field of sport with the aim to analyse how the approach of the EU institutions towards sport governing bodies has developed over the years. In the Meca-Medina judgment, the Court, called to assess the compatibility of anti-doping measures with EU provisions on competition, established that any rule adopted by these organisms has to be consistent with EU law, unless the actual restriction is intended to pursue a legitimate objective and is proportionate to it. More recently, it appears that the European Commission, alongside some national courts, has gone even further, expressly recognizing for the first time that also some sport eligibility rules, namely forced arbitration clauses, do not comply with EU competition law.

Healthcare-associated infections entail several implications form the point of view of therapy, organisation, as well as of criminal liability. This article analyses this last aspect, by focusing on presuppositions for the assessment of the causal link and of the negligence of the doctor in case of infection contraction from the patient. Especially, the focus is on the possibility to avoid the infection transmission.

This chapter examines the international protection of places of worship. To this end, it begins by analysing how the establishment of such spaces is a manifestation of the fundamental right of freedom of religion. It also analyses the texts of the United Nations and European international bodies (the Council of Europe, the European Union and the OSCE) that call on States to defend the right of confessions to build their places of worship. The main difficulties that arise in the exercise of this right are identified. It also analyses the threats that these places suffer, which mainly come from religious radicalism, as well as from the response—which is sometimes violent—to this radicalism.

The analysis of the Gaius passage related to the succession system of the Aeliani dediciticii (Gai. 3.74-76) highlights the complex relationship between the relevant legislative texts on the subject (the lex Aelia Sentia and the lex Iunia) and jurisprudential interpretation. In particular, Gaius reports on the shortcomings of the lex Aelia Sentia which could lead to the abstract consequence, rejected by the jurist also on the ethical level, that such dediticii can possess the ability to make a will. The interpretation of the majority of the jurists, to which Gaius adheres, excludes this possibility, with the consequence that for them the possibility of succession is open to freedmen. On the basis of the text of the law, however, the succession plan differs in its treatment of the Aeliani dediciticii , who at the time of manumission could become Roman citizens, and those who, by a defect or form or a lack of another requirement, could have become Latini Iuniani. This disparity may mean that freed slaves who, for example, suffered infamous punishments in the period of slavery, could be favoured. However, the jurisprudential interpretation has not reached the point of correcting this possible disparity, probably because the wording of the text of the lex Aelia Sentia constituted an insurmountable obstacle.

Taking cue from the fractals theory, the paper evaluates the hypothesis of functional homothetia of law, according to which different levels of legal systems interact dynamically and show similar characteristics at different scales of magnitude. Specifically, the paradigm of the “enemy criminal law”, usually referred to the most serious state reactions to radical violations of civil coexistence, is experimentally applied to minor crimes provisions, related to a reduced social concern and punished with moderate sanctions, to territorially limited hermeneutical indications and to lower courts jurisprudence. The individual clothing choices, whereas essential crime elements, are analyzed as presumptions of harmful or dangerous intentions, based on uncertain and implicit sociological generalizations, which leave on the defendant the burden to overwhelm prejudicial interpretations and the risk of lack of proof. To include the gravity of conducts and penalties requirement in the “enemy criminal law paradigm” is framed as a mere conventional and definitional option, within the broader “opposition paradigm”, whose critical efficacy is highlighted with reference to the examined cases.

The article focuses on the multi-level, trans-national, cross-sector paths of anti-corruption law. It also also analyzes the multiple systemic and para-systemic impacts anti-corruption law determines when incorporated into domestic legal systems.