di Nadia Maccabiani

SOMMARIO: 1. Premise – 2. A few words about blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in the financial sector – 3. General and specific challenges of legal and political concern – 4. Innovation facilitators in FinTech: the case of Regulatory Sandboxes – 4.1. The Italian Regulatory Sandbox – 5. Governance by experimentalism – 6. An enhanced Rule of law?

Different regulatory techniques have been employed, at different governance levels, when science and technology clash with the law. Likewise, Regulatory Sandboxes are tools provided by the legislator to deal with technology-enabled financial services. As far as this latter aspect is concerned, our main focus shall be on the deployment of blockchain and DLT technologies in FinTech owing to their potential to multiply the hurdles of the legal challenges already raised by the Internet as well as by the financial dematerialisation and globalisation. With regard to these elusive phenomena, Regulatory Sandboxes aim at remedying the shortcomings, abuses or misuses of existing legal rules without, at the same time, creating an obstacle or an excessive burden to innovation. They may in essence be conceived as a nuanced consequence of both, as the European-derived “better regulation” model as well as the underlying proportionality and precautionary principles. The outcome of this process represents a sort of “learning by doing”, to be employed with the peculiarity of a rapidly changing and technology-driven financial activity towards a double-layered purpose of legal relevance: on the one hand, the return under the judicial auspices of the law of otherwise unregulated cases; on the other hand, the mutual harmonisation between the law and the case under the competent Regulatory Authority’s supervision. By holding out the promise of a tailored and more flexible application of the current legal rules, an activity, which was previously carried out under the dominant framework of lex cryptographica and informatica, is lured within legally regulated borders. This represents a procedural process for recovering the original meaning of the Rule of Law, i.e. its effectiveness.

di Marina Pietrangelo

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa. – 2. La “forma” della legge come memoria del ciclo regolatorio. – 3. Osservazioni sparse sul linguaggio della legge nella produzione normativa recente. – 3.1. Sul lessico. – 3.2. Sulle formule standardizzate. – 4. Per concludere.

The paper examines some of the most recent italian national legislation, considering the quality of the regulation from the perpective of linguistic and formal aspects. The work takes into consideration some recurrent weaknesses and tries to indicate appropriate corrective measures.

di Costanza Masciotta

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione. – 2. Luci e ombre della riforma costituzionale sulla riduzione del numero dei parlamentari. – 3. La riforma costituzionale ed il sistema elettorale. – 4. Le ricadute della riforma costituzionale rispetto ai regolamenti parlamentari. - 5. Interventi di revisione “apparentemente minimali”. – 6. Interventi non meramente minimali ma “qualitativi”. – 7. Modifiche di ampio raggio non strettamente dipendenti dalla riduzione del numero dei parlamentari. – 8. Sulla eventuale inerzia delle Camere dinanzi alla riforma costituzionale. – 9. Considerazioni conclusive.

In the article hereto we shall endeavour to identify advantages and disadvantages of the constitutional reform on the reduction of members of Parliament starting from the many elements proposed by the doctrine, to evaluate the interaction with the electoral system, and in turn delve in great detail into the subject matter of the reform’s impact on parliamentary regulations. The pursued objective consists, from a procedural perspective, in identifying a possible future reform method of House and Senate regulations and, from a substantive standpoint, establish the regulatory modification necessarily deriving from the constitutional amendment, distinguishing minimal modifications from those qualitatively more complex, as well as elucidating the possible broad-spectrum modifications independent from the reform, which could, though, be useful to be introduced in this circumstance for coherence purposes, without omitting the layout which could instead derive from the possible failed update of the regulations themselves.

di Paolo Bonetti

SOMMARIO: 1. Un’emergenza eccezionalmente diversa e più grave di ogni altra. – 2. La Costituzione repubblicana regge l’emergenza, anche sanitaria. – 3. I contenuti delle misure restrittive adottate non violano i limiti costituzionali dei diritti fondamentali e le riserve di legge, ma trascurano i diritti dei minori e delle famiglie. – 4. Atti, limiti e modi delle misure restrittive e il rapporto tra decreti-legge e d.p.c.m. rispettano l’assetto costituzionale delle fonti del diritto e del rapporto tra Stato e Regioni. - 5. La mancata previsione di forme di indirizzo e controllo parlamentare sui d.p.c.m. e il rischio di stress dell’uso del decreto-legge. – 6. L’insufficiente motivazione delle singole misure restrittive previste dai d.p.c.m. (e i principi per il monitoraggio del rischio sanitario). – 7. Spunti per riformare in occasione delle emergenze il funzionamento e la composizione degli organi costituzionali (Camere e Governo) e di rilevanza costituzionale (Consiglio supremo di difesa) e gli strumenti istituzionali. – 8. Spunti per riformare la gestione dei dati personali, l’assistenza sociale e sanitaria e per ampliare i livelli essenziali delle prestazioni concernenti i diritti civili e sociali. – 9. Spunti per riformare il sistema tributario per favorire la salute, le famiglie, l’assistenza, i trasporti pubblici. – 10. La pandemia spinge ad un nuovo intervento pubblico nell’economia e a una nuova partecipazione dei lavoratori alla vita delle imprese. – 11. Prevenire e contrastare le epidemie come occasione per una implementazione diversa di alcuni principi costituzionali: gratuità dell’istruzione obbligatoria, accesso a tutti dell’istruzione scolastica e universitaria, ragionevole durata del processo e umanità del trattamento penitenziario.

The waning of the Coronavirus pandemic gives the opportunity for more peaceful considerations on what has been done so far. The paper points out that the Italian Republican Constitution withstand emergencies, even the health ones. The restrictive measures adopted to tackle the health crisis doesn’t violate both fundamental rights and the rule of law, but they neglect the rights of children and families. The analysis of these measures shows that they have been adopted in accordance with the constitutional structure of sources of law, as well as of relations between State and Regions; on the other hand, the paper points out some critical issue, as the lack of Parliamentary control. Various points that emerged during the pandemic emergency can offer ideas for a different implementation of constitutional principles. First, constitutional and institutional bodies may be reformed to perform better during emergencies; other suggestions concern the tax system and, more generally, the economic governance. Finally, the paper stresses the need of a different implementation of principles in the fields of education and justice.

di Marta Picchi

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa. – 2. La “prova di forza” del Bundesverfassungsgericht. – 2.1. I fatti pregressi. – 2.2. Lo strabismo del Bundesverfassungsgericht: parla al Bundesregierung, al Bundestag e alla Bundesbank rivolgendosi, però, alle istituzioni europee. – 2.3. Le numerose criticità. – 3. Riflessioni per concludere: premesse per un “cambio di passo”.

The Bundesverfassungsgericht's ruling of 5 May prompted immediate reactions: the prevailing literature considers it potentially “explosive” because it violated the principle of the primacy of European Union law. This essay, after illustrating its content, focuses on the numerous issues that it has aroused, their possible evolution and, in a broader perspective, the possible scenarios in view of the further integration process.