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Research Projects

ANDREA BERTOLINI

INCLUSIVE ROBOTICS FOR A BETTER SOCIETY (INBOTS)

“Inbots” is a Horizon2020 Coordination and Support Action, which aims at proposing an European regulatory framework applicable to Robotics. Andrea Bertolini coordinates Work Package 5, which has the objective of identifying and analyzing the needs and gaps of existing regulatory framework within Europe applicable to Robots and promoting the legal reform necessary for favoring the proliferation of a strong European Robotic Industry. The matters addressed range from liability and insurance, to standardization and certification, product safety, and intellectual property.

Learn more at https://inbots.eu/

REGULATING ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED BIONIC LIMBS AND EXOSCKELETONS (RELIABLE)

“Reliable” is a Scientific Independence of young Researchers (SIR) project, financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Education, coordinated by Andrea Bertolini. It focuses on legal and ethical issues arising from the development and diffusion of bionic limbs and exoskeletons and other forms of biorobotic applications. The projects analyses the relationship between human beings and technology in the bioethical and technoethical debate, as well as the alternative liability models applicable to such applications in order to balance fundamental rights, product safety, victim compensation, while providing adequate incentives to innovation.

EUROPE REGULATES ROBOTICS

“Europe Regulates Robotics” is a Jean Monnet Module which funds teaching activities in the field of law and robotics, through a variety of academic activities: PhD and Masters level course taught at SSSA, the organization of the International Summer School “The Regulation of Robotics in Europe: Legal, Ethical and Economic Implications” (which has now come to its third edition) as well as international conferences and seminars in the field of technology regulation and with a particular focus on European policymaking and with a multidisciplinary approaches that involves engineers, economists, management experts, philosophers, ethicists, as well as lawyers with the most diverse backgrounds.

Learn more at: www.europeregulatesrobotics-summerschool.santannapisa.it

 

FRANCESCA BIONDI DAL MONTE

FAIR PLUS: FOSTERING ACCESS TO IMMIGRANT’S RIGHTS – PRACTICAL TRAINING FOR LAWYERS AND JUDGES

The project aims at contributing to better judicial protection of the fundamental rights of migrants across the EU and to the effective and coherent judicial application of EU law on fundamental rights by training judges and other legal practitioners. It also aims at increasing the knowledge of judges, lawyers and other legal practitioners about EU and international law on the fundamental rights of migrants and at strengthening networks and exchange of views between national trainers, judges, lawyers and other relevant legal practitioners within and between the target countries. The project is funded by the European Union.

AFTER THE LAW: SOURCES OF LAW AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

The research aims at analyzing the effectiveness of the laws through the analysis of the procedures followed for their implementation. The way in which the laws recall following implementation decrees, their nature, the time of the implementation and the critical perspectives concerning the justiciability of these procedures are explored. The topic covers a typical pillar of the Constitutional law discipline related to the study of the sources of law. It allows also an in-depth analysis of the Italian form of government and the accountability of Public Institutions (especially Parliament and Government). The topics is also explored under the perspective of the Comparative law and trough empirical analysis of open data.

DREAM: DATA, RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS ON MIGRATION 

The DREAM research area of the Dirpolis Institute coordinates an develops research activities in the field of immigration and asylum. The main research topics are: immigration and integration policies; international protection procedures; fundamental rights of migrants; reception of migrants; unaccompanied minors; citizenship and mobility within the European Union. Specific collaborations have been set up with institutions and organizations, at national and supranational levels, in order to develop studies and analysis. Interdisciplinary approaches and comparative perspectives are promoted.   

 

Jean Monnet Module MARS "MIGRATION, ASYLUM AND RIGHTS OF MINORS" 

The Jean Monnet Module MARS (2019-2022) aims at spreading the knowledge of EU law on the protection of migrant children and promoting its correct implementation, taking also in consideration the international conventions (such as, in particular, the Convention on the Rights of the Child). The topic is directly connected with the enforcement of European Union law and the respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Despite many studies are devoted to migration and asylum issues, the protection of migrant children rights deserves a broader investigation in the academic fields, both in research activities and in training courses for students and professionals. Teaching activities will benefit from different approaches, combining legal theory with practical application and case studies. In the framework of the Module, three summer schools (one per year); a series of seminars about migration, asylum and rights of minors; a workshop and a final conference will be organized.

 

ALBERTO DI MARTINO

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? MIGRATION CONTROL AND CRIMINAL LAW – COMPARATIVE, INTERNATIONAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

The project addresses the legal regulation of migration from an interdisciplinary perspective, with special focus on criminal law measures. Specifically and applying a comparative approach throughout, the project will inquire into three separate but interrelated subthemes: (1) the historical roots of mass migration control through borders management involving the use of force, as well as the historical evolution of contemporary criminal law-based migration control, (2) doctrinal questions and issues of effectiveness of migration control through criminal law, and (3) international criminal law related aspects of migration. The intertwinement between theoretical, historical, and international criminal law related perspectives is still significantly under-researched. The legal issues involved are particularly challenging – not the least given that domestic (criminal) law is shaped and influenced through both, international and European, in particular human rights law on the one hand and (domestic and international) administrative law on the other. This multipolar and level scenario challenges the traditional theoretical and doctrinal approaches to criminal law. The planned project aims to contribute to fill these gaps. The planned research is furthermore susceptible of short-term and mid-term practical results. As a short-term result, comparative research on the German and Italian legal orders will prove necessary in order to assess the normative coherence of a complex setting directly involving these two countries (and many others in Europe). As a mid-term result, the scientifically sound assessment of a policy area often left to administrative and police practices, may underpin specific suggestions of a wider change in the political agenda of both countries, as regards the issue of controlling migration through criminal law and – more broadly – through coercive measures affecting personal liberty

 

MARIA GAGLIARDI

PRIVATE LAW AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

The project focuses on the most recent debates concerning family relationships and child protection in a national, European and comparative perspective. It also addresses issues such as: family models and families in transition; best interest of the child and protection of persons in family breakdown or conflicts; family law and welfare; sexual orientation and gender identity.

TORT LAW AND INSURANCE IN THE FRAMEWORK OF A RISK MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM

The research analyzes tort and insurance law in a wide perspective, focusing on their goals and their main interactions with other areas and issues (insurance, risk management and regulation, precautionary principle, etc.). The objective of the research is to better understand how insurance markets and products react to social changes and tort law evolution as well, and to study possible new risks insurability and institutional answers. More specifically, it focuses on issues such medical malpractice and risk management; liability insurance; damages; insurance and disability; information in insurance contract law.

SCIENCE AND THE LAW. LAWERS AND THE NOTION OF “SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY”

The main goal of the project is to study what kind (or kinds) of notion for science and scientific assumptions stem from rules and judicial decisions. All topics of law and of science are relevant in ongoing research in order to obtain a wide framework to be used by lawyers and students for better understanding the consequences of the scientific culture in the practice of law.

 

GIUSEPPE MARTINICO

EUROPEAN PUBLIC LAW-IUS (EUR.PUBL.IUS)

While the Union is still facing the political consequences of the financial crisis, other important challenges for the European integration have attracted the attention of some commentators over the last months. Circumstances like the so called Brexit, the problematic accession of the EU to the ECHR (after Opinion 2/13 of the Court of Justice of the EU), the difficulties connected to Art. 7 TEU and the debate about the possibility to set up a sort of Copenhagen Commission require a thoughtful reflection. The project deals with these issues, trying to provide a critical and updated view on the most recent developments in the field of European Public Law.

Learn more at: https://www.santannapisa.it/it/ricerca/progetti/jean-monnet-module-european-public-law-ius-eurpublius

CHANNELLING HOMOGENEITY AND PRESERVING DIVERSITY IN FEDERAL MULTINATIONAL CONTEXTS

The project aims to assess the integrative function played by law in federal multinational contexts. In particular, it aims to study the dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, asymmetry, secession so much à la page in current times, but from an original inclusive and holistic perspective. Our research question is: “how do constitutional norms channel homogeneity in federal multinational contexts?”. In order to answer this question, we shall explore how norms can “hold together” federal systems characterized by cultural, legal and economic diversity in light of some factors, namely the criteria adopted to extend membership, the prerequisites of (and limits to) forms of differentiated treatment (asymmetry), the procedural safeguards in case of constitutionalized procedures for secession/withdrawal and, finally, the possible procedures of deprivation (partial or total) of membership rights, even de iure condendo in systems which do not provide for procedures for expulsion.

CONSTITUTIONS AS RISK MANAGEMENT DEVICES: DEMOCRACY, SECESSION AND REFERENDA

New lifeblood to the debate on the noble and yet complex instrument of the referendum has been given by the recent British events connected to the vote held on the 23rd of June on the so called Brexit and the always burning Catalan scenario, among other things.

This project shall explore some comparative reflections concerning the risks connected to the "inappropriate" use of referendum relying on the insights offered by comparative law instruments.

 

GAETANA MORGANTE

BUSINESS INTEGRITY COUNTRY AGENDA (BICA)

In collaboration with Transparency International Italia, the research project aims at monitoring the performances of anti-corruption system and the promotion of legality in enterprise environment within the Business Integrity Forum.

DIGITALISATION OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION

In collaboration with Consob, the project’s objective is to draft a Green Paper on the matter of the digitalization of financial intermediation processes. The project also benefits from the partnership of ESMA (European Securities and Market Authority) and IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions).

 

ERICA PALMERINI

FINTECH AND THE DIGITALISATION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES.

The project, lead in collaboration with Consob and other Universities, deals with the legal recognition and assessment of new forms of financial services provisions, such as equity c crowdfunding, peer to peer lending and automated financial advising (roboadvice).

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING

The project deals with an interdisciplinary analysis (technical, legal and ethical) of the effects of advanced automation on the transport sector. Other sectors, such as healthcare, banking and finance, may be included in the research in the future.

 

GIANLUIGI PALOMBELLA

ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE, IN THE LIGHT OF INTER-LEGALITY

Research aims at discovering and explaining material and legal interconnections that make environmental issues an extraordinaty case in point of the new frontiers of law in the XXI century. Closely related to climate change, and the moral & legal issues of intergenerational justice, the analysis of environmental regulation across borders and the role of Courts and litigation offer a unique opportunity both to tackle the dangerous trends of environmental future, and to revise legal arrangements as a complex compact of diverse and interrelated regimes.

INTER-LEGALITY

The project is premised on the assumption that the current doctrinal view over law as a system-related concept fails to describe the overwhelming interweaving among different legalities sourced by state, regional or global orders & regimes. It envisages inter-legality as a state of fact, calling upon interpreters and judges to work on a new fabric of legal problems. In order to contribute in the inter-legality research a number of leading scholars, from private law to constitutional and international law gather in a three years funded project starting the end of 2019, and have published the Cambridge University Press book The Challenge of Inter-Legality (2019) edited by Jan Klabbers and Gianluigi Palombella, in collaboration with renowned researchers from several countries.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY 

A legal philosophical approach to the question of rights in between the global and the national dimensions. What makes  human rights a credible normative obligation ? What are the relations between rights enshrined in regional or supranational conventions and domestic Constitutions? What is the  interplay between democratic  rule and individual rights ? These are the main questions in an ‘age of rights’ when sovereignty barriers are fading while States’ action remains the most appropriate premise for rights’ protection. 

THE RULE OF LAW

Research enquiries upon the theoretical and historical meaning and significance of the concept, its diverse incarnations, its change in time and institutional variation. The rule of law is assessed as a central notion to regional, universal and national charters, and in relation to domestic and international contexts.

Consideration is made of a number of border-line domains, especially in European Member States, but also elsewhere, displaying an alleged crisis of such  a canon of legal civilization and the features of its socio-political circumstances.

 

EMANUELE ROSSI

COMMON GOODS

The research project intends to investigate the innovative ways that, on the regional territory, have established themselves for the management, care or regeneration of public goods or private goods of public use within a collaboration between local authorities and reality of the Third sector (globally considered), entrepreneurial realities, without neglecting the attention that some municipal authorities have reserved for "Informal groups". The purpose of the project is to deepen the theoretical aspects of the c.d. the right of the shared administration for the management of the common assets, which represents the area of intersection between the classical administrative law, the law of the Third sector bodies, civil law and constitutional law and the census of "best practices" spread throughout the territory.

TESSERE: THIRD SECOTR, SUBSIDIARITY AND REGULATION

“Tessere” is the aggregation of research initiatives on the legal regulation of the Third sector and the implementation, in practice, of the principle of horizontal subsidiarity as defined by the Italian Constitution and the sources of European Union law. The ongoing projects aim to create publications, of national and international relevance, regarding the main legal issues concerning the Third sector, social entrepreneurship and the management of common goods. From a methodological point of view, the research area cultivates the ambition to contribute to the development of the scientific debate around a Third sector law, recomposing the current disciplinary fragmentation. The area has been collaborating for some time with other national research networks, and has produced some research products that have established themselves in the national scientific and institutional debate.

 

EMANUELE ROSSI – ELENA VIVALDI

LAW N. 112/2016: THE OPEN QUESTIONS AND THE CHALLENGES TO ITS IMPLEMENTATION

The project aims to propose a reflection on the legal and social repercussions - also in terms of territorial application procedures - of the law on c.d. "After us", two years after its approval. Specific attention will be reserved for the preparation of specific modification proposals.

 

CATERINA SGANGA

RECREATING EUROPE (H2020 “Rethinking digital copyright law for a culturally diverse, accessible, creative Europe”, €3 million, 2020-2022, www.recreating.eu

reCreating Europe is an H2020 project funded by the European Commission and led by Caterina Sganga. It is conducted by a consortium featuring highly renowned research centers (Scuola Sant’Anna, IViR University of Amsterdam, CREATe University of Glasgow, Maynooth University, LIBER – European Association of Research Libraries, HIIG – Von Humboldt Center for Internet and Society Berlin, University of Copenhagen, University of Trento, University of Tartu, University of Szeged). 

The project looks at the impact of technologies on cultural practices and the production and use of intellectual property, and at the challenges faced by policy makers in creating an effective system of sustainable norms for digital copyright. With its multi-disciplinary innovative approach, bringing together researchers, practitioners and stakeholders, and joining different methodologies within the framework of participatory research strategies, reCreating Europe aims at delivering ground-breaking contributions towards a clear understanding of what makes a regulatory framework that promotes a diverse production of cultural and creative goods and services, and optimizes inclusive access and consumption. 

Research activities are articulated around five groups, each of them devoted to a specific stakeholder (end users and vulnerable groups, individual authors and performers, creative industries, cultural heritage institutions, intermediaries). Teams are composed by lawyers, economists, sociologists, geographers, data scientists, and experts in cultural studies. Their work targets four main objectives. First, to produce unprecedented cross-national maps of (i) multi-level regulatory sources that impact access to culture, cultural production, competitiveness of creative industries, and (ii) coping strategies of stakeholders vis-à-vis IPRs pitfalls and constraints. Second, to develop innovative qualitative and quantitative methods and tools to measure the impact of digitization on the production and consumption of cultural goods and services. Changing intermediaries, specific creative communities, micro/SMEs and vulnerable users such as migrants and disabled persons get special attention. Third, to perform a legal and technological mapping and evaluation of TPMs and content-filtering algorithms, and their impact on cultural diversity, access to culture and the generation of cultural value. Last, to offer policy recommendations and best practices, aimed at democratizing culture while reinforcing the sustainable development of rich and diverse cultural/creative industries.

 

 

 

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE NEW FRONTIERS OF TECHNOLOGY

After the revolution brought by digital and bio- technologies at the turn of the 21st century, today new innovations are again stretching the boundaries of IP law, asking for a full revision of its principles and foundations. Focusing on industry 4.0, IoT, robotics and AI, this project explores the most compelling questions related to the adaptability of “old” IP rules to such new technologies and analyzes the need for reforms, with a particular emphasis on the balance between incentive to innovation, competition and access, and between IP and conflicting public interests and users’ fundamental rights.

POLICING EU COPYRIGHT REFORMS

In the past two decades EU copyright has been subject to momentous legislative and judicial reforms. Several of these interventions have been criticized for their weak empirical justifications, negative impact on the copyright balance, and questionable favoritism towards specific categories of stakeholders. Leveraging the cooperation with an EU-wide network of copyright research centers, this project aims at contributing to the EU copyright law reform debate with a wide array of activities, from ad hoc policy interventions to tenders, consultancy and more holistic systematic studies.

GLOBAL PROPERTY LAW

Due to its close link to sovereignty, territoriality, and the socio-economic order defined by national constitutions, property law is considered the most national of any other private law institutions. However, several factors are now undermining this construction, building an increasingly globalized property model that shares common traits and functions, but significantly departs from its more traditional national counterparts. This project addresses the theoretical and practical challenges engendered by the phenomenon, analyzing a wide array of examples, from the supranational move towards the “propertization” of entitlements over new objects of wealth to the development of hybrid (EU), cosmopolitan (ECtHR, international investment arbitration) or private ordering-based property models.

 

ELENA VIVALDI

WE TOO

The project objective is to experiment work-placement processes for people with physical and mental disabilities. The role of the Sant'Anna School Unit is to support and monitor - also through comparison with national and international experiences - the use of the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) for the assessment of individuals and companies involved in the project.

 

EMANUELE SOMMARIO

JEAN MONNET MODULE EIHRSDS “EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS IN DISASTER SETTINGS” 

The Jean Monnet Module EIHRSDS (2020-2023) is predicated on the fact that disasters are increasing in terms of frequency and impact, both within and outside the EU. At the same time, it is now acknowledged that the protection of disaster victims is not merely a charitable act, but represents an actual legal obligation of States, grounded in international human rights law. However, the real impact of human rights standards on disaster prevention, preparedness and response activities has been insufficiently explored so far. Even worse, efforts to disseminate these standards have been very limited. The EIHRSD module intends to address these gaps. Its overall objective is to raise awareness on the topic and ensure that the target audience (including students, researchers and practitioners) acquires the level of expertise in universal and European human rights standards needed to (i) shape policies and activities aimed at reducing disaster-related risks, and (ii) enable more effective and human-rights sensitive responses to these phenomena.

To learn more, visit the project’s website

INTERNATIONAL DISASTER LAW PROJECT (FINANCED UNDER THE FIRB SCHEME)

The IDL project is a joint effort conducted with other three Italian universities. It is intended to address the gap between the mounting number of natural and human-made disasters and the still fragmented and deficient international legal framework aimed at preventing, mitigating and responding to calamitous events. 

The project is aimed at exploring these and related topics in the belief that a more thorough legal regulation might help reducing the destructive potential of disasters and their human and material costs. Activities include the organization and running of training courses, providing assistance to the International Law Commission’s work on the protection of persons in the event of disasters, the publication of an edited volume in English and of several research papers, scholarly articles and reports.

 

To learn more, visit the project’s website