This module familiarizes students with the classic texts on the Rule of law. The teaching is organized around specific authors, sequentially, with a close reference to exemplary texts. The general approach should be historical, situating each author within the specific context of their time, the political controversies they were involved in, and responding to, as well as their overall strategy for either political or institutional reform.

This module introduces and critically engage students to contemporary debates on the evolution of EU institutions, and the central role which both the ideal rule of law, as well as responses to its violation play within this evolution. The section is itself divided into 2 further subsections: I) constructing the ideal in the EU; II) recruiting institutional resources and remedies.

This module introduces students to the relevant literature in political science, political sociology and political philosophy to study violations of the rule of law, in the context of both democratic transitions as well as authoritarian black-sliding. The section is divided in two subsections. The first one discusses classic texts in the political theory of liberal democracy (by, among others, John Stuart Mill, Martha Nussbaum, Hans Kelsen, Robert Dahl, Juan Linz, Charles Tilly, Lon Fuller and Elizabeth Anderson), and provides students with the necessary conceptual and theoretical resources to analyze institutional transitions and social changes. Next, the second subsection leverages the theoretical insights of the first subsection to discuss contemporary theories of the rule of law, the separation of powers and the legitimate scope of judicial review. Both subsections can be integrated with historiographic material detailing specific instances of either democratic transitions or authoritarian backsliding.

• Marco Brigaglia on Kelsen on democracy
• Paolo Sandro on Cameron Maxwell
• Michel Troper on the Rule of Law: impossible and inevitable
• Pablo Navarro on the crisis of the Rule of Law
• Pablo Navarro on alternatives to the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on the crisis of the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on alternatives to the Rule of Law 
• Matthias Klatt on the crisis of the Rule of Law 
• Matthias Klatt on alternatives to the Rule of Law

This module delves into the procedural dimensions of the rule of law and its violations, by presenting a comparative perspective to due process, fair trials, and the role of judges in contemporary nation-states. The module covers due process requirements and their violations both in the criminal domains as well as in the civil and administrative ones.

This module shall develop students’ abilities to historically situate and contextualize alternative conceptions of the Rule of law, the political controversies that gave rise to their formulation, and the specific proposals for institutional reform which they inspired. The students should be able to trace the historical significance of the central concepts associated to the Rule of Law to their original formulations, their institutional context and political objectives.

This module shall develop students’ abilities identify possible threats to the Rule of Law both within EU institutions, as well as in its foreign relations. Students will acquire the critical skills to locate contemporary debates on the Rule of Law in the EU, within the general pattern of evolution of EU institutions as well as of national identities and popular sovereignty. Classes can be organized around case studies (drawing also from the bibliography of Module 3 below), or by thematic areas and institutional interventions. 

This module shall develop students’ theoretical abilities to reconstruct normative evaluations of the ideal of the Rule of Law on the basis of classical theories of justice and the value of legality, as well as to bring this theoretical vocabulary to bear in the political sociology of democracy, its transitions and evolution. Teachers may either choose to organize their sequence of lecture around classic texts, and work through the historical bibliography as examples. Or alternatively, teachers can organize their sequence of lectures around case studies instead. Students should be challenged to think through their own interpretation of the ideal of the Rule of law, which may fit alternative conceptions of justice, as well as focus on solutions to the non-ideal scenarios discussed in the second section of the module.

This module shall develop students’ abilities to identify and assess the procedural dimensions of the rule of law and its violations. The students shall become critically aware of, and knowledgeable about comparative perspectives to due process, fair trials, and the role of judges in contemporary nation-states, both in the criminal domains as well as in the civil and administrative ones, both in common law jurisdictions, as well in civil ones.

1. Law, Justice and Coercion: an introduction to Augustine’s philosophy of law
2. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
3. Montesquieu’s Institutional Dynamics: Consolidation of the Principles of Government
4. Montesquieu’s Institutional Dynamics: Corruption of the Principles of Government
5. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
6. Sieyès’s Revolution: The Rights of Man and the Gains of Liberty
7. Sieyès’s Revolution: Constitutional Design
8. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights: Duty, Pity and Contempt
9. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights: Character, Virtue and Reputation
10. Reason, Law and Tradition in Edmund Burke
11. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature
12. The Federalist Papers: Executive Powers, Rights and Judicial Review
13. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Sovereignty, Subjection and Political Independence
14. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Rights, Constitutions and Popular Consent

• Pablo Navarro on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Brian Bix on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Matthias Klatt on the concept of the Rule of Law
• Michelangelo Bovero on the concept of the Rule of Law

1. I- Constructing the Ideal in the EU: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives
   • Law and Political Identity in European History
   • After Maastricht: Compromise, EUphoria and Consolidation
   • European Constitutionalism I
   • European Constitutionalism II
   • The Rule of Law and Liberal Democracy in Europe
   • The Rule of Law and Populism in Europe
   • The Rule of Law and National Identities in the European Context
2. II- Recruiting institutional resources and legal remedies
   • The Rule of Law as European Policy
   • The Rule of Law and Article 2 TEU
   • The Rule of Law and Article 7 TEU
   • The Political Economy of a Federalist Union

1. I- Political Institutions, Democracy and Social Change: Political Theory
   • What Are the Legitimate Ends (and Limits) of Government?
   • The Value of Individuality I
   • The Value of Individuality II
   • Democracy, Parlamentarism and the Crisis of Metaphysics
   • Contending Power and Democratic Transitions I
   • Contending Power and Democratic Transitions II
   • What is Majority-Rule?
   • Polyarchy, Pluralism and Democratic Representation
   • Democratic Backsliding I
   • Democratic Backsliding II
   • Natural Law, Political Communities and Human Flourishing
   • Classical Liberalism and Equal Liberty: The Case of Sexual Discrimination
   • Law, Gender and Justice
   • Social Movements in Democratic Politics
2. II- Political Institutions, Democracy and Social Change: Legality and Constitutional Interpretation (Video Bovero, Klatt, Kristan, Navarro, Rocchè, Zgur)
   • The Political Ideology of Legalism
   • Duties, Aspirations and the Inner Morality of Law
   • Judicial Review and Democracy I
   • Judicial Review and Democracy II
   • Judicial Review and Equality
   • Common Law Constitutionalism
   • Judicial Review and Institutional Consolidation
   • The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes
   • Political Tribes, Ideologies and the Politics of Courts
   • Polarization, Democracy and the Rule of Law

• Marco Brigaglia on Kelsen on democracy
• Paolo Sandro on Cameron Maxwell
• Michel Troper on the Rule of Law: impossible and inevitable
• Pablo Navarro on the crisis of the Rule of Law
• Pablo Navarro on alternatives to the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on the crisis of the Rule of Law
• Victoria Kristan on alternatives to the Rule of Law 
• Matthias Klatt on the crisis of the Rule of Law 
• Matthias Klatt on alternatives to the Rule of Law

1. I – Judicial Application of Law and the Problems of Fact-Finding
   • Fidelity to Law and Judicial Duties
   • Judicial Application of Law: A Conceptual Map
   • On the Rational Application of Law
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship I
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship II
2. II- Political Ideology and the Organization of State Powers
   • Comparative Procedural Law and Institutional Evolution: Culture, Economics or Politics?
   • Models of Fact-Finding and the Structure of Authority
   • Models of Fact-Finding and Political Ideology
3. III- Due Process and Judicial Policy
   • The Procedural Dimensions of the Rule of Law
   • Law and Reason in Criminal Procedure
   • The Point of Civil Justice

1. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
2. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
3. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights
4. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature
5. The Federalist Papers: Executive Powers, Rights and Judicial Review
6. On Austin’s Legal Orders: Rights, Constitutions and Popular Consent

1. I- Constructing the Ideal in the EU: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives
   • Law and Political Identity in European History
   • After Maastricht: Compromise, EUphoria and Consolidation
   • European Constitutionalism I
   • European Constitutionalism II
   • The Rule of Law and Liberal Democracy
   • The Rule of Law and Populism in Europe
   • The Rule of Law and National Identities in the European Context
2. II- Recruiting institutional resources and legal remedies
   • The Rule of Law as European Policy
   • The Rule of Law and Article 2 TEU
   • The Rule of Law and Article 7 TEU
   • The Political Economy of a Federalist Union

1. I- Political Institutions, Democracy and Social Change: Political Theory
   • What is Majority-Rule?
   • Democratic Backsliding
   • Social Movements in Democratic Politics
2. II- Political Institutions, Democracy and Social Change: Legality and Constitutional Interpretation
   • Duties, Aspirations and the Inner Morality of Law
   • Judicial Review and Democracy

1. I – Judicial Application of Law and the Problems of Fact-Finding
   • Judicial Application of Law: A Conceptual Map
   • On the Rational Application of Law
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship
2. II- Political Ideology and the Organization of State Powers
   • Comparative Procedural Law and Institutional Evolution: Culture, Economics or Politics?
3. III- Due Process and Judicial Policy
   • The Procedural Dimensions of the Rule of Law
   • Law and Reason in Criminal Procedure
   • The Point of Civil Justice

1. On the Three Principles of Government: An Introduction to Montesquieu
2. Beccaria: Sovereignty, Security and Civil Liberty
3. Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Human Rights
4. The Federalist Papers: Majority-Rule, Factionalism and Human Nature

1. I- Constructing the Ideal in the EU: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives
   • Law and Political Identity in European History
   • After Maastricht: Compromise, EUphoria and Consolidation
   • European Constitutionalism
   • The Rule of Law, Liberal Democracy and Populism in Europe
   • The Rule of Law and National Identities in the European Context
2. II- Recruiting institutional resources and legal remedies
   • The Rule of Law as European Policy
   • The Political Economy of a Federalist Union

1. I – Judicial Application of Law and the Problems of Fact-Finding
   • Judicial Application of Law: A Conceptual Map
   • The Rationalist Tradition of Evidence Scholarship
2. II- Political Ideology and the Organization of State Powers
   • Comparative Procedural Law and Institutional Evolution: Culture, Economics or Politics?
3. III- Due Process and Judicial Policy
   • The Procedural Dimensions of the Rule of Law