2025/2 -Mutamenti del diritto e formazione giuridica

Teaching global and transnational law is a persistent trend in legal education. Although  not new, such trend is always in need of precise boundaries and definitions, also in  order to orient students in their choices. This paper reflects on the state of the art and  on the realistic purposes that can be achieved by such a teaching approach, exploring  the potential of Mooting as an educational tool aimed at building a global community  of lawyers. 

Keywords: Global Law – Transnational Law – Higher Legal Education – Curricula – Lawyers.

English title: Implications of the Connection Between Fact and Norm: Case Method and  Imagination in Legal Education

Abstract: In the aftermath of World War II, the rediscovery of the practical nature of legal  knowledge enabled scholars to move beyond the modern dichotomy between fact and  law, laying the theoretical foundations for the “contextual turn” first attempted in the  early twentieth century by a part of legal scholarship. This “scientific revolution”  restored the centrality of the case in civil law countries, against its marginalization due  to the modern epistemological rupture. However, this revolution has not influenced  the model of legal education yet, which remains grounded in the centrality of the  general and abstract rule and in the ex cathedra lecture method. This paper outlines  the contours of a new model of legal education, aligned with the contextual turn in  legal theory: a “subjunctive” model, based on the case method and open to the social  contexts from which law arises and in which it lives. 

Keywords: Case – Contextual Turn – Hermeneutics – Case Method – Legal Education.

English title: Law as “Social Art”. Contribution to Innovative Teaching  

Abstract: The jurist should not fear creativity but rather value it. The evolutionary development  of humankind shows that the vocation to create – whether a work of art, a new legal  institution, or an innovative interpretation – is a fundamental feature of human  nature. The creative act is not the arbitrary exercise of power but the result of the  human ability to combine reason and imagination, deduction and intuition. Every act  of creation is an act of freedom and responsibility presupposing a system of rules and  principles, within which, the artist expresses himself so that the work may be accessible  and recognizable. Likewise, the jurist creates through the art of interpretation, always  respecting the framework of rules and principles of the legal order. 

Keywords: Creativity – Interpretation – Motivation – Principles – Living Form.

English title: Training in Restorative Justice after the Cartabia Reform: State of the Art and Future  Perspectives 

Abstract: Starting from the cultural resistance that still exists towards the restorative approach,  despite the introduction of a comprehensive regulation by Legislative Decree 150/2022,  this essay analyses the crucial issue of training in restorative justice. This is considered  not only with reference to the role of the expert mediator, but also with regard to all  legal practitioners who are required to implement the Cartabia Reform. Ultimately,  the essay emphasises the importance of incorporating restorative justice into legal  education at university level to train lawyers capable of understanding and promoting  a dialogical and participatory approach to “doing justice”, moving beyond a purely  punitive logic. 

Keywords: Restorative Justice – Legal Education – Cartabia Reform – Mediator – University.

English title: Empathy, Application of Law, Legal Education 

Abstract: The article tackles the concept of empathy, argues for its fertile role in law application,  in both judicial and public servants’ activity, and draws some inputs for legal education. The analysis moves from the conceptualization of empathy as an ability, susceptible of  being configured as an intellectual virtue, consisting in understanding the state of  mind and the reasons for action of others, not as an emotion itself. By embracing the perspective of legal hermeneutics and taking this view on empathy,  the author shows that its exercise is fruitful for the legal qualification of the case, as far  as judicial activity is concerned, and to overcome the vulnerability that can affect  citizens in their relations with public services, as far as street-level bureaucrats are  involved. In this context, the analysis addresses and aims to refute the criticism that  the presence of empathy in law application would undermine the principle of  impartiality.  Finally, the article looks at how empathy can be learned, not only through socialization  processes, but also through education. It is maintained that training paths should  promote self-awareness, attentive listening and moral sensitivity and that useful tools  for these purposes include imagination, simulation and case discussions. 

Keywords: Internal Point of View –Judicial Reasoning – Legal Skills – Public Administration –  Virtues.

English title: Rhetoric, Logic, Argumentation and Truth in Legal Education. A Proposal for  Classifying Certain Key Competencies 

Abstract: The essay presents a discussion of the fundamental literacy and citizenship  competences, offering a valuable interpretation for the context of legal education. In  this regard, the competences in question are examined in relation to ethics, politics  and rhetoric as understood through the lens of Aristotelian philosophy, which  underscores the potential for assessing the presence of truth in the discourses that  characteristically typify these disciplines. This provides an opportunity to discuss the  conceptual function of truth, which can be grasped through common sense, is present  in the dynamics of fact-checking and can be explained according to alethic realism and  its extended ontology. The subsequent phase will entail a transition argument- checking, which will involve the elucidation of the concept of training in logic and  argumentation, as articulated within a rhetorical pedagogy of truth. 

 Keywords: Key Competences – Rhetoric – Logic – Argumentation – Truth.

I due volumi qui considerati ricostruiscono la prospettiva giusfilosofica  radbruchiana attraverso i suoi temi principali: il rapporto fra legale e sovra- legale, le questioni della validità e della giuridicità del diritto nel loro rapporto  con il tema della certezza del diritto, la teorizzazione dello Stato di diritto. Entrambi i lavori ben chiariscono gli elementi che fanno di Radbruch un  “giuspositivista critico” che elabora, a partire da una posizione di non cognitivismo etico, una teoria del diritto positivo ancorata a standard minimi di  moralità. Per Radbruch la validità di una norma giuridica non è funzione della  mera forza; il diritto positivo non è tutto il diritto ed è incompiuto; la giuridicità di un ordinamento giuridico non si riduce alla sua legalità. Si può così  comprendere il messaggio insito nella nota “formula di Radbruch”: se le leggi  negano consapevolmente la volontà di giustizia, abbandonando all’arbitrio,  cessano di essere diritto, recidono ogni vincolo di obbedienza nei loro  confronti e i giuristi devono avere il coraggio di negare loro il carattere della  giuridicità. Una formula – dunque – ricca di implicazioni, oltre che sotto il  profilo dell’identificazione dei criteri della giuridicità delle norme, anche per il  ruolo che da essa scaturisce per il giurista. Il “non-diritto” può emergere, infatti, solo a fronte della sua identificazione come tale da parte dei giuristi.

Efficacemente articolato su un doppio registro – storico e teoretico –, inoltre, il volume di Marina Lalatta Costerbosa offre una ricostruzione coinvolgente del pensiero di Radbruch. L’autrice ci restituisce la complessità del  pensiero di Radbruch, percorrendone tutti gli snodi tematici principali ed  evidenziandone i nessi interni e l’unitarietà, contestando l’ipotesi dell’esistenza di due fasi del pensiero radbruchiano, tra loro nettamente distinte per  presupposti e conclusioni. Nel quadro così offerto, è dedicato, inoltre, molto  spazio alle tematiche su cui il giusfilosofo di Lubecca assunse posizioni inno- vative sul piano della politica del diritto e della riforma sociale: la necessità di  promuovere la condizione femminile entro le professioni forensi e la denuncia  della dominante prospettiva maschile radicata nel diritto; l’enfasi sull’egua- glianza e sui diritti sociali; l’opposizione alla pena di morte. In tale direzione,  costituisce un valore aggiunto del volume la pubblicazione della traduzione, in  Appendice, di alcuni scritti di Radbruch dedicati alla contestazione della pena  di morte. Il volume risulta di estremo interesse anche per la sua efficacia nel porre il  pensiero di Radbruch in relazione con le tesi di altre grandi figure del suo  tempo, giuristi e non, come Hans Kelsen e Hannah Arendt.