Ateneo - UPO

The course proposes a critical examination of the main legal issues related to the regulation of the religious phenomenon in European societies. Starting from an introduction regarding the merit and method of European ecclesiastical law, the following topics will be developed: the legal sources of European ecclesiastical law; the principles of European ecclesiastical law; the legal categories of European ecclesiastical law; the prospectives and challenges of European ecclesiastical law.

FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS: Doctrinal and jurisprudential material provided to participants on the individual topics covered during the course and progressively inserted for each lesson block on the DIR platform. FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS: Pierluigi Consorti, Diritto e religione. Basi e prospettive, Editore-Laterza, 2020, pp. 380.

Knowledge of the main problems existing in multi-religious societies in order to: • Educate the new generations to a more mature citizenship (civic education); • Greater critical sensitivity and skills on issues of racism, discrimination for ethnic, religious or gender or sexual orientation reasons; • Multilevel knowledge of European ecclesiastical law with regard to both sources and jurisprudence; • Knowledge of both national and international jurisprudence (ECtHR) on religious freedom and anti-discrimination; • Knowledge to deal with the intersubjective dynamics connected to multicultural processes; • Culturally prepare future PA executives in facing the challenges of plural societies. The course pursues, in its entirety, two main educational objectives indicated within the Sustainable Development Goals elaborated by the United Nations: Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Knowledge of constitutional law and private law is recommended. In the first case is knowledge of the first part of the Constitution concerning the fundamental principles. About the private law such as: juridical person; contract; property and other civil law institutions.

The course is organized in lectures. There is an obligation to attend at least 2/3 of the lessons in order to acquire the status of a student and benefit from the specific examination program. It also can to take the exam abroad at the Université de Paris-Saclay within the European ‘Gratianus’ project through a four-week stay in October and November following a total of 44 hours of lessons. Lessons will be held in French with foreign teachers from various EU countries. Students will benefit from a Free Mover scholarship (See the Gratianus program in the appropriate file) and will have to participate in a preliminary interview to verify the degree of knowledge of the French language. At the end of the period abroad it will be issued as a certificate of participation by the foreign University and a report must be prepared on a topic indicated by the course holder.

The course will be supported by multimedia tools (DVD, Youtube) and will use the expertise of external teachers on-site or via Skype. Some lessons could take place in a foreign language: French or English.

Oral examination

The course program will be composed and structured as follows: Lessons 1-2: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE (a. Organization and structure of the course; b. The merit of the course: genesis and development of European ecclesiastical law; c. The method of European ecclesiastical law ; d. The actors of European ecclesiastical law);
Lessons 3-4:
THE SOURCES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. International, European and national sources; b. Unilateral sources and bilateral sources; c. Religious rights and secular rights; d. Human rights and religious freedom);
Lessons 5-6:
THE PRINCIPLES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. Equality; b. Non-discrimination; c. Secularism);
Lessons 7-8:
THE LEGAL CATEGORIES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. Religious minorities; Migrants and religious refugees);
Lessons 9-10:
THE CHALLENGES OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW: GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION (a. Freedom of sexual orientation and religious freedom; b. Gender equality in religious communities);
Lessons 11-12:
THE PATHS OF EUROPEAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (a. Confessional autonomy in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights; The concept of democratic society in Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights).

Expected results: They can be divided into three distinct categories: 1) Results in terms of technical and legal knowledge: knowledge of the main sources of law; knowledge of the legal principles relating to the topics dealt with; knowledge of the functioning of institutions of domestic law and international law. 2) Results on the level of civic education: maturation of a more critical social conscience on the issues of diversity; the fight against discrimination, respect for human rights 3) Results on the full transversal competences: expository capacity in the classroom; properties of legal language; ability to resolve problematic issues of a legal nature; ability to apply the rules to concrete cases.