0055425 - SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

italian

The course will be devoted to the sociology of deviance, the theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system and the operation of alternative measures. The final part of the teaching will be devoted to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights about prisoners' rights.
The students will be asked to prepare an appeal to the Court

Students attending classes will be evaluated on the basis of their active participation in the course and seminar and theoretical activities, and of the drafted measure. The final exam will consist in a discussion with the teacher about the topics treated in the initial stage, the theoretical report and the drafted measure.
Non-attending students will be required to study the following texts:
E. SANTORO, Carcere e società liberale, II edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2004 (pp. 372).
Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque, I diritti umani in una prospettiva europea. Opinioni concorrenti e dissenzienti (2011-2015) a cura di Davide Galliani, Giappichelli Torino, 2016, nelle seguenti parti: Prefazione (pagine numeri romani), Premessa (1-46), cap. 1 (57-100); cap. 3 (169-220)

Understanding
Knowledge about the sociology of deviance, theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system, and alternative measures.
Skills
Ability to analyze the relationship between law and social reality, in particular the social impact of criminal rules and the ways of managing social problems. Ability to working with others and to discussing issues associated with the protection of prisoners' rights. Ability to drafting in English an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Competences
Approach to law as a ‘social question’. Aptitude to historicize the offence-punishment link, to connect the problems of the political-social order with the theories of deviance and punishment. Ability to assess the framework of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on prisoners' rights.

Students must have passed the exams of General Constitutional Law, Private Law I. It is recommended to have passed the exams of Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure

Lectures: 20 hours
Workshops on protection of the rights of prisoners offered by European Court of Human Rights: 10 hours
Seminars: 18 hours

Intermediate tests: students must expose the first paper at mid-term and discuss other students’ papers in seminars.
Final exam: for attending students, it will consist in a discussion of the two written papers. The evaluation will be based on the quality of the written paper, on the oral presentation and on the participation to the discussion of the papers of the other students.
For non-attending students, it will be about the textbooks.

The course is divided into three parts.
In the first part the different legal-sociological theories about the functions of the punishing system will be introduced, with particular reference to the different kinds of deviance and penitentiary institutions.
There will follow a seminar part involving the reading of texts, the drafting of papers and their collective discussion. Students can choose to study some topics more in depth, including: the different interpretations of the evolution of punishing systems; social control; the psychological and anthropological foundations of punishment; the relationship between morality and criminal law; the opposition between the classical school and the positive school (Lombroso and Ferri); retribution, due process and deterrence theories; the opposition between punishment and offender’s treatment; abolitionist theories; the sociology of prison life; ‘total institutions’; the process of degradation of defendants and convicts; the representation of deviance in the media; the transition from the welfare state to the ‘penal state’; theories of juvenile deviance; Durkheim’s sociology of punishment: anomie; the Chicago school; the labelling theory; critical criminology and the new criminological realism.
The last part of the teaching will be devoted to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights about prisoners' rights. At this part of the course will take part a jurist of the ECHR. If it is possible, some judges of Court will be invited. The students will be asked to prepare an appeal to the Court strating from real cases of violations of prisoners' fundamental rights.

In order to attend seminars, a good knowledge of English is strongly recommended. Moreover, as an introduction to and support of seminar activity and the study of house arrest the following readings are recommended:
E. SANTORO, Carcere e società liberale, II edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2004 (pp. 372).
E. SANTORO (a cura di), I diritti dei detenuti: la giurisprudenza della CEDU. Materiali per una prima analisi, Quaderni dell'Altro diritto, Pacini, Pisa, 2016