Private International Family Law

The increase of migration flows and the movement of EU citizens within the EU has led to an increase in family relationships between citizens of different States. Therefore, it is essential to identify the legal framework of these relationships, which is no longer entrusted exclusively to the States' legislature, but they are attributed to the European Union, which is progressively building a common system of private international rules concerning family matters, as well as of rules concerning the entry and residence of foreign nationals.

The course is divided into two modules. The first one is designed to introduce theoretical general tools of private international law to be applied in cross-border family matters in order to identify the applicable law. Thus, students will acquire the correct methodological approach to "transnational families" through the analysis of current practice and the management of mock cases. The second module aims at providing legal notions relating to Italian and European citizenship and to the status of foreign-country nationals in light of national and supranational legislation, as well as at developing the ability to apply said notions in concrete situations taking advantage of the relevant judicial and administrative practice.

Both the teaching units of the course will be divided into two phases, aiming to specific objectives.
The first phase main target is to build the ability to apply to concrete cases the knowledge and understanding of the different principles and norms that contribute to the regulation of personal status and family relations, with a view to their practical implementation in the field of multi-level protection provided by the different courts, national, European and international. This first phase is a key enabler to develop, in the second part of each teaching unit, a solid knowledge and understanding of the basic issues relating to the juridical dimension of personal status (such as the legal status of Italian and EU citizens and of foreigners) and family relationships, in situations which imply conflict of laws, with a focus on marriage. This objective will be achieved through the comprehension of the mechanisms presiding the interaction and coordination between legal sources provided by national, European Union and international legal systems, and of the remedies offered by the different national and supranational courts.
Furthermore, the acquisition of three specific skills will be pursued continuously throughout the two teaching units, in order both to facilitate an easy access to employment and to undertake specialized studies with a high level of autonomy. First ability is to operate with high degree of autonomy within the legal framework of reference through the use of different legal research tools (institutional websites, databases, digital libraries), together with the capability to assess specific and concrete cases by an autonomous and critical interpretation of the legal sources. Second skill is to acquire a proper level of communication (according to the language chosen by each student for her/his studies) through a correct use of juridical terminology. This will enhance her/his ability to interact in multilingual contexts and to play an active role in the judicial cooperation at European and international level. Last objective is to get the capability to further and autonomously update students' knowledge to the future legislative and jurisprudential developments, and to continue their education at a master degree level.