Law and Safety

The design of this doctoral course is intended to maximize two aspects of legal education.
The first aspect concerns general theory. From this perspective, it must be recalled that—beyond the biological and evolutionary reasons underlying the communitarian dimension of individual existence—every community is founded upon the need to protect the life of its members (along with the complex apparatus of impulses, primary needs, and aspirations connected to it). Law, as is universally recognized, "is from its very origin ordained to safeguard a coexistence among men naturally exposed to the risk of destructive conflict" (R. Esposito, Immunitas, Turin 2020, 31).  The legal order, in all its articulations, strives to achieve the protection of the individual and of social coexistence. Therefore, it necessarily possesses a general "security-oriented" function, which, moreover, engages in a dialectical confrontation with individual freedom. This is a constant and unresolvable dialectical confrontation because freedom requires security, yet at the same time, security constitutes a limit to freedom. The instituere vitam, according to Marcianus’s expression, highlights how individual and collective survival is linked to a (legally relevant) institutionalization that inevitably compresses and limits what it protects. This is an inseparable yet inherently problematic link, in respect of which two different approaches to security policy currently compete at a global level: a more tested and traditional approach, which is more restrictive of fundamental rights and freedoms, and an integrated approach based on complementarity and interaction between security and freedom (comprehensive security).  By evoking this dialectical relationship between (subjective) right and security from the very title of the PhD, the intention was to place the complex of fundamental nodes that have always characterized (objective) law at the center of the project. This complex of issues, although traditional and precisely because it is traditional, deserves to be constantly reconsidered using all the cognitive tools proper to the jurist, but, first and foremost, according to the general perspectives offered by philosophy and history.  Alongside the aspect of general theory, the doctoral program intends to enhance a second, more specialized aspect. Although, for the reasons mentioned above, the problem of security is more than connected—it is intimately bound—to law without further qualification, there are sectors of legal experience that render this connection entirely explicit. It could perhaps be said that there is a "law of crisis," that is, a complex of disciplines (or disciplinary articulations) specifically dealing with moments of "rupture," those in which equilibrium is most threatened and in which it is essential to implement specific security mechanisms.  Some of these "crises" are entirely traditional: from the crisis of cooperation and corporate distress to perhaps the most critical moment of all, namely crime—both that perpetrated at an individual level and that, ever relevant, pertaining to State responsibility. Other crises are linked to specific features of the contemporary era because they depend (perhaps more due to the forms that characterize them than the values potentially prejudiced by them) on new technologies or on the new social, economic, and financial dimensions of social organization: one need only think of the protection of privacy in relation to new forms of communication and data exchange, or the protection of security against cyber threats. Alternatively, they depend on the emergence (or accentuation) of new values and correlated new protection needs (such as the protection of future generations in relation to climate crises).

The doctoral course pursues the objective or, rather, harbors the ambition of successfully combining reflection on the perspective of general theory with the analysis of more specialized profiles, in order to cultivate a solid legal culture and adequate critical analysis skills in the doctoral students. Traditionally, the jurist is simultaneously a "technician" and a "theorist." He or she is equipped with the technical tools to intervene precisely in crisis situations. However, these tools are all the more efficient the more he or she is master of their "science" and is capable of questioning and fully understanding the problems to which the legal system and individual norms intend to respond from time to time, as well as the real meaning of that response.  The importance of knowing how to approach law in its complexity of general theory and specialized knowledge emerges both when the jurist operates in relation to a single case (as a lawyer, notary, magistrate, member of the law enforcement forces, or official of an Agency), and when they must intervene in the elaboration of broader projects (as a lecturer or researcher). Indeed, the centrality of legal reflection means that a solid preparation in general theory and the critical refinement of specialized knowledge can prove decisive, in a constantly changing world, for assuming roles and responsibilities, on a professional and cultural level, even in fields that are not strictly legal.  The proposed doctoral course therefore aims to preserve and, if possible, enhance the union between the "technical" and "theoretical" profiles, in the belief that they are not only complementary but also serve to multiply the employment opportunities for the jurist within civil society and the "labor market."

• Historicity of legal thought
• Security and fundamental rights
• Market regulation and risk management
• Comparative privacy law
• Religion and Integrated Security
• Personal Data and Religion
• Security and freedom in the light of criminal policy
• The role of risk assessment and compliance programs in security management
• Theories of legal certainty
• Security, protection, and safeguarding
• Integrity of tax systems, fiscal interest, and freedom
• Collective, national, and individual security from the perspective of EU international law
• Occupational health and safety law and privacy protection
• Public security as an administrative function
• Legal methodology

Other educational activities (seminars, laboratory and research activities, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary training)

• Enhancement and dissemination of results, intellectual property, and open access to research data and products
• Seminars
• Management of research and knowledge of European and international research systems
• Advanced IT training
• Fundamental principles of ethics, gender equality, and integrity

• LMG/01 Class of Master's Degrees in Law
• LMG/01 R Class of Master's Degrees in Law
• LM-56 Economics
• LM-56 R Economics
• LM-62 Political Science
• LM-62 R Political Science
• LM-63 Public Administration Sciences
• LM-63 R Public Administration Sciences
• LM-76 Economic Sciences for the Environment and Culture
• LM-76 R Economic Sciences for the Environment and Culture
• LM-77 Economic and Business Sciences
• LM-77 R Economic and Business Sciences
• LM/SC-GIUR R Legal Sciences
• LMG/01 Law

Given that, according to the general inspiration of the doctoral course design presented here, the profiles of general theory directly integrate more specialized ones and, in turn, are integrated by them, professional outlets can be schematically divided into two categories.  On the one hand, we have outlets of an academic nature. The doctorate must impart a knowledge of law capable of fostering critical, analytical, research, and theoretical elaboration skills suitable to lead to scientifically appreciable results. Furthermore, the educational path will encourage, stimulate, and support doctoral students in the drafting of scientific publications. From this point of view, therefore, the PhD intends to be the starting point for the subsequent cursus academicus and, more specifically, aspires to represent the fundamental stepping stone for a subsequent university career.  On the other hand, there are outlets of a more strictly professional nature. Obviously, these certainly include traditional professions: the legal or notary profession, and the judiciary. However, the specific focus given to the doctorate regarding security disciplines should qualify those who obtain the title as the candidates of choice for all public or private entities, as well as national and international bodies and police forces, within which particular emphasis is placed on security issues: from the cybersecurity authority to the data protection authority, from companies (especially multinationals) whose activities involve big data management, to consulting firms.