Papers by Luca Pietro Vanoni
Stato, Chiese e Pluralismo Confessionale, Dec 9, 2022
Sommario: 1. Introduzione.-2. Discriminazione lavorativa e ministri di culto: la ministerial exep... more Sommario: 1. Introduzione.-2. Discriminazione lavorativa e ministri di culto: la ministerial exeption doctrine.-3. Rooted in the First Amendment: la decisione della Corte suprema.-4. Conclusioni: l'autonomia delle organizzazioni religiose come principio fondamentale dell'ordinamento americano.
Durante la terza stagione della fortunata serie televisiva House of Cards, il presidente Frank Un... more Durante la terza stagione della fortunata serie televisiva House of Cards, il presidente Frank Underwood, infastidito dal diniego del Congresso ad approvare un suo programma politico (American Works), decide di ricorrere allo stato di emergenza, riallocando i fondi destinati alla Federal Emergency Management Agency per finanziare tale programma. Non sappiamo se Trump sia un fan della serie, ma colpisce come il plot televisivo sia molto simile alla strategia messa in atto dalla Casa Bianca per superare l'empasse provocato dallo shutdown più lungo della storia americana e dal fermo rifiuto del Congresso a finanziare la costruzione del muro di confine fortemente voluto da Trump. Il caso, nella sua complessità, porta alla luce alcune delle contraddizioni più significative del costituzionalismo americano sotto il profilo della divisione dei poteri. Tutto è nato dall'esito delle elezioni di midterm dello scorso novembre che hanno consegnato la maggioranza della Camera ai democratici e, con essa, il controllo sul bilancio federale che, in America, deve essere approvato dal Congresso e successivamente firmato dal Presidente. Tale risultato ha innescato la miccia dell'acceso scontro politico tra la Presidenza e il Congresso sulla già discussa necessità/opportunità di finanziare il South Borders Wall. Dopo un braccio di ferro durato per oltre 35 giorni sulla approvazione del bilancio federale, che è costato il blocco di numerose attività amministrative e gravi disagi ai cittadini e ai dipendenti governativi rimasti senza stipendio, il Presidente ha infine firmato il bilancio il 25 gennaio, non esimendosi però, al contempo, dal minacciare il ricorso a misure straordinarie in caso di mancato accordo con il Congresso sulla costruzione del muro. Così, di fronte alla perdurante resistenza della maggioranza parlamentare, Trump ha dichiarato lo scorso 15 febbraio lo stato di emergenza nazionale giustificando tale misura in ragione della grave minaccia «[to the] core national security interests» provocata dalla «large-scale» e «long-standing» crisi sull'immigrazione illegale. L'esercizio degli Emergency Powers da parte dell'esecutivo è un tema profondamente radicato nel costituzionalismo americano; sebbene infatti il modello di presidenza voluto dai Framers fosse sostanzialmente subordinato al Congresso quale titolare dell'indirizzo politico 1 , la storia costituzionale americana ha mostrato più di una volta, anche in epoca liberale, l'uso presidenziale di poteri straordinari per far fronte a casi di emergenza nazionale. La Costituzione, in realtà, non attribuisce espressamente tali poteri al Presidente. Allo stesso tempo, però, tale prerogativa può essere considerata come immanente allo stesso potere esecutivo (seguendo, ad esempio, la prospettiva descritta da John Locke in Two Treatises of Government) ed anche ricavata implicitamente da alcune clausole costituzionali. Tra queste si ricordino l'Art. I sec. 8 che attribuisce al Presidente l'autorità di «provide for the common Defense and general Welfare», o l'Art. II, sec. 3 (Take Care Clause) in virtù del quale il Presidente «has the duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed [in order to] to preserve the United States as a nation (…)» e, pertanto, «can take care of by declaring an emergency and doing what is permissible» 2. E così, nel corso degli anni, molti sono stati i Presidenti che, da Washington fino a Lincoln, hanno utilizzato tali prerogative per risolvere gravi crisi nazionali, fornendo interpretazioni tra loro anche diverse, come ben testimoniato dal dibattito tra Theodore Roosvelt e William Taft sulla c.d. «stewardship theory» 3 .
The rise of identity politics is challenging the modern liberal democracies and the constitutiona... more The rise of identity politics is challenging the modern liberal democracies and the constitutional agreements that come from it. Constitutional theory such as multiculturalism or supranationalism are no longer capable of fixing the conflicts we are living within our pluralistic societies, because social groups believe that their identities are not receiving adequate recognition in the public square. Whenever these requests for identity\u2019s recognition cannot find places where make their voice heard, they may lead to forms of populism/nationalism. This phenomenon calls into question the European multilevel constitutionalism, built as a governance without government that, after the failed effort to reconcile the European demos under a European constitution, focused on the protection of human rights. The paper, firstly deepening the identity issue from a theoretical perspective, aims to investigate the origin of nationalisms within the EU. In the light of this analysis, the paper will try to answer the question: how can constitutionalism (and European constitutionalism) help in managing this disagreement
One of the most complex challenges of our modern constitutional democracies concerns the relation... more One of the most complex challenges of our modern constitutional democracies concerns the relationship between cultural and legal traditions and the moral and political duty to be “secular”. The secular, indeed, “has become a central modern category theologico-philosophical, legal-political, and cultural-anthropological to construct, codify, grasp, and experience a realm or reality differentiated from ‘the religious’”1. As Charles Taylor pointed out, “it is generally agreed that modern democracies have to be ‘secular’. There is perhaps a problem, a certain ethnocentricity, involved in this term. But even in the Western context the term is not limpid and may in fact be misleading. What in fact does it mean?”2. According to Taylor, a secular regime involves a certain separation between state and church, but also “more than this”; especially in our pluralistic postmodern societies, the secular principle “requires that there be some kind of neutrality, or ‘principled distance’, to use Ra...
SOMMARIO: 1. Intelligenza artificiale, singolarità tecnologica e diritti umani: uno sguardo nel f... more SOMMARIO: 1. Intelligenza artificiale, singolarità tecnologica e diritti umani: uno sguardo nel futuro - 2. Quale religione? Alla ricerca di una definizione costituzionalmente orientata - 3. Transumanesimo, tecnoscienza e religione: una relazione pericolosa? - 4. Non avrai altro Dio al di fuori di AI: Way of the Future e il culto del Dio-computer - 5. (segue) Il transumanesimo a scuola - 6. (segue) Religion or not? La libertà religiosa dei fedeli di Way of the Future - 7. Anche gli androidi sognano divinità elettriche? La libertà religiosa dei robots - 8. Conclusioni: giorni di un futuro passato. Deus ex Machina. Artificial Intelligence and Religious Freedom in the US Constitutional framework ABSTRACT: The raise of the digital age and the developments of Artificial Intelligence is stressing the historical and complicate relationship between science, religion and law. Concepts like technological singularity or transhumanism are rapidly changing this relationship, and a growing number...
The Fragmented Landscape of Fundamental Rights Protection in Europe
1. This article operates in conjunction with all European competences, especially internal market... more 1. This article operates in conjunction with all European competences, especially internal market provisions, as the creation of this market-along with the arrival of the digital era-has resulted in the constant transmission of digital information and data. By establishing the legal basis for European data processing on recognizing a fundamental freedom, Article 16 clarifies that "where a conflict between privacy protection and the circulation of personal data makes finding a balance impossible...the former must prevail." 2 Additionally, "constitutional" protection of the right to privacy and data protection are expressly guaranteed to every individual by Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Article 7 specifically sets out the general provision that "Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications." 3 Article 8 safeguards "the right to the protection of personal data" establishing that such data "must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law" and that every individual "has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified." 4 The protection of personal data is both independent of the right guaranteed in Article 7 and a specification thereof since it regulates the protection of the individual and its nature in relation to the digital-era challenges of adopting the principles set out by the Preamble to the Charter, according to which the protection of European rights must be guaranteed "in the light of changes in society, social progress and scientific and technological developments." 5 Special legislative acts actually guaranteed this right even before these rules were adopted in the Treaty. For many years, the main tool-albeit along with other specific acts-for such protection was the EU Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC), which required Member States to "protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons, and in particular their right to privacy, with respect to the processing of personal data." 6 1 Art. 16 "1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning them. 2. The European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall lay down the rules relating to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, and by the Member States when carrying out activities which fall within the scope of Union law, and the rules relating to the free movement of such data. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to the control of independent authorities." 2 Bruno Cortese, 'Protezione dei dati di carattere personale nel diritto dell'Unione europea' [2013] in Diritto dell'Unione Europea no. 2, 316.
The conclusion which I am warranted in drawing from these observations is, that a mere demarcatio... more The conclusion which I am warranted in drawing from these observations is, that a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands. J. Madison, The Federalist no. 48
The Appointment clause between politics and law: the American case. In the era of modern constitu... more The Appointment clause between politics and law: the American case. In the era of modern constitutionalism, the importance of selection and appointment of constitutional judges has become ever more crucial for democratic societies. In our democratic systems, the nomination procedures for constitutional tribunals must observe, within the logic of the separation of powers, the proper balance between the judges’ independence and the political agenda that brought to their election. The Appointment Clause of the US Constitution represents a favorable example to appreciate this sort of constitutional balance. In the last decades, US political and cultural divisions highly impacted the nominations of Supreme Court Justices. The increasing partisanship and obstruction at the hands of both Democrats and Republicans, involved in the Senate confirmation process, has been the subject of much scholarly debate and criticism. The latest example of this is the recent replacement of Justice Scalia, who died unexpectedly during the last year of Obama’s presidential mandate, with Neil Gorsuch, appointed by the new President Trump. The long political fight between Democrats and Republicans for the appointment of Justice Gorsuch explains the legal struggle between political views and constitutional rules that informs the US Supreme Court composition. Keywords: Appointment clause, nuclear option, advise and consent, US Supreme Court.
Nessuna idea è probabilmente più importante per i governi democratici della sepa-razione dei pote... more Nessuna idea è probabilmente più importante per i governi democratici della sepa-razione dei poteri. In questa opera fondamentale il Prof. Giovanni Bognetti (1930-2013) ricostruisce la storia e l'evoluzione di questo principio fondante il costituzio-nalismo moderno. Giovanni Bognetti distingue due modelli storici di separazione dei poteri: il modello " classico " , sviluppatosi come reazione all'accentramento dei poteri tipico dello stato assoluto e nato al fine di proteggere le libertà dell'individuo; e il modello " sociale " , che riflette il nuovo paradigma di tutela dei diritti sociali caratteristico delle democrazie contemporanee. Quest'ultimo modello si discosta così profondamente da quello originario che, secondo l'Autore, siamo oggi di fronte ad una trasformazione giuridica e politica profondissima, che pare essere ancor più pronunciata a seguito dell'insorgere di processi che incidono sui sistemi costitu-zionali attuali quali la globalizzazione, il multiculturalismo e l'affermarsi di ordi-namenti sovranazionali. L'opera di Giovanni Bognetti rappresenta un importante contributo al dibattito contemporaneo sulla separazione dei poteri. Arguably no idea has been more central to democratic government than the separation of powers. In this seminal book, Prof. Giovanni Bognetti (1930-2013), traced the history and the evolution of this foundational idea in modern constitutionalism. Prof. Bognetti distinguishes two models of separation of powers: the " classic " model, emerged in reaction to the centralization of powers typical of absolutist states as an effort to protect individual liberties and the " social " model, which reflects the new paradigm of social rights protection in modern democracies. In the latter, according to Prof. Bognetti, we perceive a kind of political and legal transformation of the classic conception of separation of powers—a transformation that becomes even more pronounced against the backdrop of globalization, multiculturalism and the rise of supranational legal orders. This seminal book represents a fundamental contribution to the current global debate on the separation of powers.
One of the fields where the clash between the ambition toward secularism and the need to enhance ... more One of the fields where the clash between the ambition toward secularism and the need to enhance cultural traditions mostly emerges is the debate on the presence of religions in the pluralist public space. From a Constitutional point of view, Courts and judges are often asked to solve conflicts involving religious claims, trying to maintain simultaneously respect for religious identities, religious freedom and the principle of equality of every belief before the state. The difficulty of this task arises clearly within the extensive case law on religious symbols and ceremonial prayers in Europe, but also in the USA. In order to address this challenge, constitutional judges often try to extract from a certain definition of “secular state” a particular legal standard and use it as the legal tool useful to reconcile, once and for all, all the cases concerning religions in public spaces. In a nutshell, neutrality as a legal standard implies two main goals: strict and strong separation be...
The rise of identity politics is challenging European constitutionalism that, after the failed ef... more The rise of identity politics is challenging European constitutionalism that, after the failed effort to create a demos under a Constitution, focused on the protection of human rights. When the demands for identity recognition cannot find spaces to be voiced, they may lead to forms of new populism/nationalism. Against such backdrop, how can constitutionalism help to manage this tension?
Since it entered into force in 2009, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights played an importa... more Since it entered into force in 2009, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights played an important role in shaping the European Union framework. In particular, it impacted the unique European federal structure imposing a centralizing effect and providing the grounds to confirm and steadily expand the scope of application of EU fundamental rights to the Member States. The European Court of Justice increasinglyreferred to the Charter in order to interpret the EU law, directly enforcing the Charter’s provisions in its judgements. In doing so, the European judges empowered their role as human rights adjudicators, but they didn’t fully consider the federal paradox of their rulings. This paper will examine the impact of the Charter’s federalizing force within the field of digital privacy. First it will analyze the clash between the rights to privacy and data protection guaranteed in art. 7 and 8 of the Charter and the need to ensure national security expressively reserved by art. 4 TUE t...
Rivista Italiana Di Diritto Pubblico Comunitario, 2004
Quaderni Costituzionali, 2011
Il Politico Rivista Italiana Di Scienze Politiche, 2009
The Fall of Fortress Europe: Considerations on Integration Policies in the EU Context / LP Vanoni... more The Fall of Fortress Europe: Considerations on Integration Policies in the EU Context / LP Vanoni, S. Ninatti. - In: Politico. - ISSN 0032-325X. - 2:221(2009), pp. 93-111. ... There are no files associated with this item. ... Items in AIR are protected by copyright, with all rights ...
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Papers by Luca Pietro Vanoni