CRIMINAL LAW
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
An adequate knowledge of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law are required and essential to a full understanding of: (a) the constitutional constraints concerning criminalization and the choices about penalties and their implementation; (b) the philosophical horizon of criminal sanctions and of the law as a device of conflict regulation; (c) the legal and philosophical background of restorative justice.
Oral examination conducted in the way of an inverted cone: a general question followed by some more specific questions that open up further perspectives of verification.
Will be assessed in particular the ability to report the contents of the program as appropriate to the specific nature of matter the ability to connect the various institutes of criminal law, argumentation skills, technical and expressive skills .
The course aims to provide a systematic framework of the principles, structures, mechanisms and techniques of interpretation of the Italian criminal law; to offer an overview of the supranational legislation; to give basic notions of white collar crimes and of restorative justice.
At the end of the course, students should demonstrate:
(a) appropriate skills in relation to the "general part" of the Italian Criminal Code (Articles 1-240 cp), the principles of the Italian Constitution in penal matters and the main rules of international conventions (in particular the European Convention of Human Rights - ECHR);
(b) basic notions of white collar crime, of restorative justice and of victim-offender mediation.
The course also aims to promote the ability to recognize the essential elements of the criminal norms and to solve practical cases taking into consideration the criminal law theory (rule of law, negligence, recklessness, justification and excuse, causation, attempted, conspiracy and so on).
Finally, the intent of the course is to promote the students’ ability to appropriately make use the legal language, giving them the tools to logically think and legally argue.
The course is a prerequisite to the Advanced criminal law course. Students must gain a range of disciplinary approaches during the course in order to develop a rational and just response to crime.
The course main object is the "general part" of the Italian Criminal Code, the main rules of the ECHR having criminal law relevance (i.e. Article 3) and the main contents of restorative justice.
The programme includes: interrelationship between criminal policy and criminal law; principles of criminal law, (rule of law and its corollaries; criminal law sources read in the light of European Union law and of the ECHR; successive criminal laws); offense theory; elements of actus reus (event, causal relationship); mental element of the offence; wrongfulness; justifications and excuses; punishments (types and sentencing); essential notions about responsibility of legal persons; the criminal jurisdiction of the justice of the peace.
The course also includes:
- general notions about the European Convention on Human Rights; the analysis of relevant case law of the Strasbourg Court;
- basic contents and methods of restorative justice and victim-offender mediation;
- basic concepts of white collar crime.
D. Pulitanò, Diritto penale, Giappichelli, Torino, last ed.
Codice penale e normativa complementare, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore, last ed.
G. Mannozzi, Diritti dichiarati e diritti violati: teoria e prassi della sanzione penale al cospetto della Convenzione europea dei diritti dell’uomo, in V. Manes, G. Zagrebelsky (a cura di), La Convenzione europea dei diritti dell’uomo nell’ordinamento penale italiano, Giuffrè, Milano, 2011, pp. 299-376.
Alternatives to each other, depending on the choice of seminar attended, one of the following texts:
- G. Mannozzi, G.A. Lodigiani (a cura di), Giustizia riparativa. Ricostruire legami, ricostruire persone, il Mulino, Bologna, 2015 (Prologo, Epilogo and one chapter form each section of the volume (phylosophical, criminal justice, criminological and practical).
- E. M. Ambrosetti, E. Mezzetti, M. Ronco, Diritto penale dell’impresa, III ed., Zanichelli, Bologna, 2012, (pages 1-43, pp. 77-96).
On the e-learning platform will be loaded at the appropriate time, power-point presentations, judgments, relevant articles and practical cases to be discussed with the students.
The course takes place in the first term, through 60 hours of lecture, and is enriched by the contribution of knowledge offered by Italian or foreign guests from academia, the judiciary or the Italian Bar Association.
Teaching includes:
- mainly theoretical lessons, designed to illustrate the principles and contents of criminal law;
- discussions of practical cases (which will be offered starting in mid-course) aimed to promote students' acquisition of vocabulary and techniques of argumentation;
- a seminar on white collar crime to promote awareness of the spread of crime among the different social classes and the transnationalism of the same, and also to provide students with a device to assess their interest in the issues of commercial criminal law;
- a seminar on restorative justice, to promote attention to the rights of the victims of crime and to facilitate the connection between disciplines (criminal procedure, criminal law, criminology) and to offer an approach to the wider topic of cooperative management of conflicts.
Students are required to attend at least one of the two seminars.
The reception is set immediately after the lesson. The teacher is also available for a different venue and a different time by e-mail.