Comparative Public Law

The course - while simultaneously taking into consideration the interaction between constitutional law and transnational law - introduces the students to the comparative method with the aim to develop an understanding of the forms of state, forms of government and processes of decentralization in the main extra-European countries. In order to achieve these learning objectives: a) we will provide tools for learning the comparative method; b) we will identify the peculiarities of the interaction between constitutional and transnational law and consequentially: c) we will analyze in a comparative perspective the political and constitutional systems of the main extra-European countries and their recent constitutional reforms, also taking into consideration the states of emergency introduced in some of them in response to the coronavirus crisis.

At the end of the course, students are expected to: have understood the fundamentals of the comparative method; have learned about the differences and similarities between the constitutional systems of the main extra-European states and the interaction between their constitutional orders and transnational law; have acquired through the analysis, discussion and presentation of case studies a good capacity for critical analysis and communication issues of public comparative law; are able to apply the comparative method to new case studies that concern the extra-European state institutions, also with the aim of verifying the impact of their political institutional changes on international relations.