The first part of the course will be devoted to legal construction, the role of the jurist and her relationship with the legal text. The second part of the course will be held in seminar mode and students can choose 1) to deepen the argumentative styles of the ECtHR that allow it to make the European Convention on Human Rights a "living instrument"; or 2) to analyze the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and legal argument
R. Guastini, Saggi Scettici sull'interpretazione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2017, pp. 1-90;
P. Costa, Discorso giuridico e immaginazione. Ipotesi per una antropologia del giurista, "Diritto Pubblico", 1 (1995), pp. 1-34;
Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque, I DIRITTI UMANI IN UNA PROSPETTIVA EUROPEA. Opinioni dissenzienti e concorrenti (2016-2020), Edited by Andrea Saccucci with prefaces by Raffaele Sabato and Gilberto Felici, Editoriale Scientifica, Napoli, 2021, pp. 1-41; 55-57; 65-115; 250-257; 290-296; 421-636; 1211-1255; 1258-1266.
Learning Objectives
Understanding
Logical-formal, procedural and political-evaluative aspects of the legal argument, investigated with both theoretical and case-based methods,
Skills
Ability to analyze judgments on controversial legal issues, identifying the kinds and types of arguments actually used by the judges: understanding the difference between legal text and norm.
Competences
Familiarization with the forms of problematic and critical thinking with reference to the general aspects of law and legal interpretation. Sensitivity to the pluralistic aspect of the resolution of legal disputes and to the prudential and argumentative nature of legal thinking.
Ability to frame the cases in the argumentative rhetoric of the ECtHR, analysis of the problems of the use of artificial intelligence in the legal field in light of the centrality of the justification of the impossibility of following a rule in private (difference between to follow a mechanical rule and to follow a rule mechanically).
Prerequisites
Students must have passed the exams of Constitutional law (general) and Private Law I and strongly suggested Philosophy of Law
Teaching Methods
Lectures: 30 hours
Seminars: 18 hours
During the first part the teacher will first illustrate the topics and approaches covered by the course and then the topics on which the students can work in the seminar part.
During the seminars the students 1) will expose and discuss the ways in which they will draw up the use of the ECHR on the chosen topic, the relevant jurisprudence and the argumentative methods or 2) they will deepen the use of artificial intelligence in the legal field and problems that it places with respect to the concept of law as an instrument capable of leading to the adoption of the right solution (i.e. justified in the light of the normative texts) for the individual case.
Further information
Any materials not available in the library will be made available on the moodle platform. The ability to search for materials in the sources available to students is considered an integral part of the skills students are expected to acquire.
Type of Assessment
For attending students, active participation in the seminar and presentation of a written paper on several judgements or on any aspect of the problematic relationship between legal reasoning and AI. 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, discussion of the reference text though one question for each suggested text. The question will aim to understand the ability of the student to argue on a specific topic.
Course program
The theoretical part will focus on the distinction between text and norm, on interpretative methods and on the history of the relationship between jurists and normative texts. The topics, which the seminar part of the course will focus on, will be chosen by students among groups of judgments of the ECtHR or among the problems related to the relationship between artificial intelligence and legal discourse
Sustainable Development Goals 2030
This teaching contributes to the realisation of the UN goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development