Suchergebnisse

The frontiers reached by gene editing and their applications for animals, plants and humans raise numerous tricky issues, posing new and renewed challenges for constitutional law scholars. This paper focuses on the role that the public can play in decision-making processes aimed at regulating gene-editing technologies. Thus, it reflects on the opportunity to develop and enhance deliberative arenas, which guarantee a fuller participation of citizens in legislative choices that touch upon controversial scientific issues of general interest, in compliance with the principles of deliberative democracy

The frontiers reached by gene editing and their applications for animals, plants and humans raise numerous tricky issues, posing new and renewed challenges for constitutional law scholars. This paper focuses on the role that the public can play in decision-making processes aimed at regulating gene-editing technologies. Thus, it reflects on the opportunity to develop and enhance deliberative arenas, which guarantee a fuller participation of citizens in legislative choices that touch upon controversial scientific issues of general interest, in compliance with the principles of deliberative democracy

On the 2 nd of July 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court decided upon an appeal filed by the State against the regional law n. 8/2018, passed by Sicily. The judgment, following a wellsettled case law on article 81 of the Constitution, affirmed that part of the articles challenged are unconstitutional. As for the remaining articles, the Court postponed the decision and delivered an investigative injunction, asking Sicily and the Italian Government to provide further data. The paper reflects on this uncommon use of the Court's investigative powers, both for its procedural effects and its broader meaning within the judicial review of legislation.

In 2015, when the EU faced a huge migrant crisis, the nationalist party PiS won the Polish elections. As an answer to people's fear, Kaczyński's party refused to operate refugees' resettlements as it was required by the emergency plann put in practice by the EU. Due to this refusal, the Commission started an infringement procedure against Poland. After framing the main legal issues of the episode, the paper analyses reasons and features of Polish migrant policy of the last four years, within the wider background of populism and constitutional crisis faced by the country.

The article focuses on the precautionary principle, a principle that - according to a quite shared definition – requires decision-makers to adopt precautionary measures to prevent environmental or human health hazards, even when scientific evidence is uncertain. After some preliminary remarks on the possible meanings of this principle and its historical roots and development, the article analyses the role of the precautionary principle within the Italian Constitutional case-law. Among the possible uses of the principle by the Court, two are worth studying: the reference to a precautionary approach when fixing conflicts between State and Regions, and the use of the precaution in order to assess the balance between values in the judicial review of legislation.

On 20 December 2017, the Commission of the European Union proposed the Council to adopt a decision on Poland under Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union. According to the Commission, this initiative was triggered by the judicial reforms delivered in Poland over the past two years. The reforms are accused of having put the country's judiciary under the political control of the ruling majority, thus representing a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law. The paper provides an account of the main legal changes introduced by the reforms, trying to highlight the principal legal concerns raised by them and the future possible scenarios

The regulation on GMO products is a highly controversial field, because of different levels of competences and governance involved and due to the presence of conflicting interests. For this reason, the legal framework on food safety and scientific innovation in agriculture represents an interesting case study on multilevel governance. Moreover, GMO regulations are strictly connected to scientific progress and research, requiring an integration of different fields of expertise, such as law-maker, scientific experts and stakeholders. The paper takes into account the possible ways of legislative intervention, analyzing risks and benefits of the balancing between the need to guarantee food safety and the promotion of scientific development.