The restrictions on human movements put into place by states in response to the 2020 global outbreak of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have disrupted every category of society, not least religion and law. Freedom of religion has been pitted against right to health across several categories. Areas of conflict such [...]

This paper addresses questions of legal personhood that have been coming to the fore in European courts in recent years through what has been termed the “Right to Be Forgotten.” These cases center around conflicts between the permanence of online information and the desire of users to instead make their own [...]

The following essay offers some legal-philosophical reflections about the current pandemic resulting from the spread of coronavirus Covid-19. These are concentrated around a few core-themes: (1) the role and of mass media and the problem of credibility; (2) the issue of cooperation among states (mostly within the EU); (3) the complex [...]

In response to the Covid-19 epidemic, the government and local authorities have adopted measures which restrict religious freedom. The Italian authorities have imposed urgent and binding ordinances suspending all religious ceremonies, and have limited access to places of worship. These measures are justified by an emergency decree aimed at the protection [...]

The aim of these brief notes is to underline in the current contingency of a worldwide not clearly known pandemic the legal relevance of the relationship between the doctor and the patient. While the Corona-virus health emergency still seems to rise, many issues are challenging the hermeneutical efforts of jurists: the [...]

This short text is an attempt at grappling with the ethical implications of coronavirus or COVID-19. The approach adopted is Spinozan, in the sense that in the centre of the ethical considerations we find the body and its connection to other bodies. The main argument of the text is that all [...]

Art. 2082 of the Italian Civil Code defines the “entrepreneur” as a person who carries out an economic activity organized for the purpose of producing or exchanging goods or services professionally. In so doing, the Civil Code describes a functional role, but leaves the “living” person apart. The Italian legislator seems [...]

From the right to information to the right to privacy, from freedom of expression to protection from defamation, online conflicts are troubling private entities and jurists alike, particularly as the ever-increasing spread of global communications changes the meaning and impact of territories and jurisdiction. Beneath the hubbub runs a babbling brook [...]

The purpose of this essay is to outline a few historical, sociological and political-legal coordinates meant to offer a sufficiently detailed picture of the unique experience of the Indo-Greeks, from their origin to Menander I. At the borderlines of Hellenism, in an isolated but not disconnected context, the Greeks from Bactria, [...]

Modern contract law attempts to balance the informational and material asymmetries between contracting parties. In Western legal systems, these strategies aimed towards fairness have been effective in facilitating the circulation and the redistribution of assets. If we look at the issues brought forth by Islamic communities within non-Islamic constitutional systems, it [...]

The essay focuses on the centrality of spatial factors towards an adequate understanding of social relations in today's plural societies, especially with regard to urban spaces, where the coexistence of culturally and religiously diverse social actors is concentrated. This coexistence favors the transformation of modern secular cities into global liturgical spaces. [...]

The essay focuses on a different perspective of the child in the assessment of her/his best interests regarding the practice of international adoption. Specifically, it will be argued that the child who is the object of adoption should be understood in terms of his/her ‘relational being,’ rather than as an a [...]

Overpopulation is a fraught concept because it immediately involves several competing ideas. First, the primary objectives of the human race vis a vis reproduction. Second, conflicting ecological understandings of the planet and the human impact on it, and finally, complex contradictions regarding what humans can and should “do” about all these [...]

The paper addresses and weighs the possibilities and usefulness of an intercultural approach to the associative phenomenon, particularly within the context of majority rule. It focuses on the cultural and religious matrices underlying majority rule as they are deduced from its historical and functional origin and from its legal experience. The [...]

This paper focuses on recent Japanese law regarding alternative dispute management tools (ADR). Since ADRs are tools born within American legal culture, their introduction in Japan constitutes a specific case of legal transplant, with significant consequences in terms of acceptance by the receiving legal system. The relative lack of litigation in [...]

This paper offers the first partial result of a two-person research project which attempts to combine a comparative and economic analysis of law with an intercultural law approach. The paper focuses on Article 5 of the Italian civil code which governs the dispositions of the human body and considers it as [...]

Intentional communities are voluntary residential communities designed to actualize forms of daily living and ways of sharing that had been thought lost to modern societies. Despite their growing popularity, in most legal orders they do not yet have legal rights. Though these communities often demonstrate a natural tendency to close their [...]

Overpopulation is one of the most serious issues impacting both the present day and the future. It is closely connected to ecological perspectives on human life on Earth. However, the “reproductive mission” of humankind has constituted a biological and moral imperative in all cultures and especially in the Abrahamic monotheisms and [...]

This essay aims to carry out an analysis of al-Jahiz’s Book of the Glory of the Black Race from a semiotic perspective. The topic of racial difference is read in light of the theory of categorization that al-Jahiz’s develops in his main work, titled Book of Animals. What is particular to [...]

Religion and economy together constitute the broadest religious marketing system. Everyday the believer, influenced by his/her religion, makes choices that respect the fideistic precepts in which he/she finds himself/herself reflected. Thus, for many years, companies have produced goods and services that are religiously oriented. In this way, the believer-consumer receives a [...]

This article investigates the intercultural relationship between Western society and indigenous society. This is the result of two workshops with members of indigenous peoples in Bogota and with Arhuaco indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the villages of Nabusímake and Simanorua. This article argues that despite the [...]

Recent judicial proceedings involving members of the Sikh community offer the opportunity to reflect on the approach employed by Italian jurisprudence towards “new” manifestations of religious freedom in the ever-changing national social context. The judges have determined that public carry of the kirpan, a symbol that is integral to the principles [...]

The aim of this essay is to analyze the topic of filiation considering both canonical and Italian private law perspectives. The distinction of differing types and categories of filiation is traditionally regarded as the most efficacious hermeneutic way to enforce the role of marriage in regulating family relationships. This well-established model [...]

Machiavelli is considered the historical champion of political efficiency. His thought is traditionally depicted as a pendulum balancing ethical standards and pragmatic exigencies, but which ends up unevenly oscillating towards the second pole. A good deal of cynicism is assumed as the price for the foundation of an objectified political knowledge, [...]

The theme of belonging is certainly deep-rooted in tattooing practices of the Ancient World. I would like to explore a complementary theme: tattooing as an attempt to include world features on/in the skin and body so as to attune an individual life to the cosmos. Even today, the inscription of signs [...]

The sharing economy likes to present itself as a new economic model, markedly different from the traditional market economy, and scrupulous in its devotion to collaboration, improved resource management, and social solidarity. The word “sharing” points at exactly these values. Nevertheless, and in spite of its self-promotion—very much reflected [...]

Intercultural Diplomacy embodies the richest part of the possibilities offered by international relations (public and private) through dialogue, kind assertiveness, and truthfulness. It means identifying potential syntheses between different cultures and working together with the aim of rediscovering oneself in the Other, living purposefully in the Other, accepting oneself and accepting [...]

Islamic jurisprudence can guarantee respect for the religious tradition as well as the renewal of modern society in many ways. The Moroccan codification of 2004 (mudawwanah: literally “code”) can be considered a step toward the implementation of human rights within the civil code framework. Among the goals of the reform was [...]

In the economic field, the law is often perceived solely for the service function it provides (or should provide) to the benefit of market players. The economy thus drives the creation of negotiating instruments at the service of the great private economic powers. As a result, the weaker "parties" accept negotiating [...]

Despite the assumption that the public sphere is secular, a relationship between religion and law is still present in the daily practice of interpreters of civil law systems. Religious affiliation often leads the faithful to involve religious courts in the resolution of disputes, and to accept their judgements as binding. Religious [...]

Religiously oriented markets have experienced rapid development over the past decade. The production of religious goods, although not without some setbacks, has become one of the main economic activities for many companies. The religious aspects of this market make it both particularly complex to analyze and extremely inviting for businesses. Although [...]

Law is a constitutive element of social life.
The cultural and religious pluralism of contemporary societies raises issues related to encounters between people belonging to different cultures or religions. To solve the consequent problems we have to become able to manage the inevitable “cultural shock” that can derive from such situation. In [...]

This paper presents the results of a concise investigation of remedies available for breach of contract, making use of the Economic Analysis of Law (EAL). An exemplar is also provided of EAL's functional potentialities as a research tool for intercultural law. The prevalence of multiculturalism in today's global social-economic experience finds [...]

An accurate and thoughtful understanding of the Islamic perception of the essential rights of elderly Muslims that considers the substantial contemporary fluctuations and adaptations of their cultural, economic, social, and emotional necessities, evolutions, and renovations calls for attention to Shari‘a (Islamic) principles and religious norms.

Intercultural Diplomacy embodies the richest part of the possibilities offered by international relations (public and private) through dialogue, kind assertiveness, and truthfulness. It means identifying potential syntheses between different cultures and working together with the aim of rediscovering oneself in the Other, living purposefully in the Other, accepting oneself and accepting [...]

This essay addresses a Judgment of Divorce ruled by an Italian court (Tribunale di Padova) applying Moroccan family law—specifically, Moudawwana Articles 83 and 114. By means of a renvoi to EU Regulation n. 1259/2010, the spouses' application for divorce benefitted from the so-called “immediate divorce” provision, namely a divorce without a [...]

In this essay I address the meaning and functions of charity in contemporary secularized democracies against the background of its plural roots in the three monotheistic religions, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The legacy of these different traditions seems to be ambivalent in itself, even more so when it is placed [...]

The essay addresses the issue of religious parties, specifically the dissolution of the Turkish Refah Partis, ordered by the Turkish Constitutional Court, and subsequently upheld by the European Court of Human Rights. By legitimizing the decisions of Turkish authorities, European jurisprudence affirms the incompatibility of a party inspired by the values [...]

The Italian colonial enterprise, including its legal efforts, was notably transient and disorganized, especially when compared to its European counterparts. As a result, Italian legal professionals working in the colonies were compelled to develop their own—often original and creative—legal approaches in managing the complex relationships between legal authorities and colonial subjectivities. [...]

This study investigates the relationship between the dominant religious culture (and thus the political powers that simultaneously support and are conditioned by it, to varying degrees) and the practice of witchcraft and black and white magic in Europe, both in the past (the Spanish Inquisition is used as an example) and [...]

The aim of this essay is to suggest a well-balanced reassessment of the philosophical and political movement called “Libertarianism”. Though its positions seem too aggressive regarding political economy and too weak in the defense of social rights, Libertarian authors tried to build a radical critique concerning the State and the prominence [...]

Still today, the principles of general economic theories do not take in any way into consideration the impact of religious affiliations on economic market systems and on rational consumption patterns.
However, one must not forget that every economic model is also a product of the human kind and for this reason it [...]

While Italian and Islamic economic and legal systems may appear to be so different as to be inconsonant, recent studies in religion and economics offer a new perspective. Particularly in light of globalization trends, contractual negotiations within civil law illuminate some interesting possibilities for interaction and creative negotiation between these seemingly [...]

The cultural and political climate as well as the values that inspired the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 belong to a distant past. The Gulf War of 1991, which introduced the concept of “just and necessary war,” marks a watershed between the Helsinki Final Act, which interdicts war as a solution [...]

This essay comprises two sections.
The first one presents and explains the proposal to broaden the meaning and scope of “intese” (agreements) between the State and minority denominations. “Broadened intese” is the label employed here to define the attempt to align the “intese” with both the generally pluralistic aspirations of the [...]

The main purpose of this essay is to analyze the experience of the second generation of migrants to Italy from an intercultural perspective. By capturing their life plots within the wider framework of migration, the enquiry focuses on the opportunities, difficulties and significancies held within the stories they live. Both the [...]

The essay addresses the issue concerning intercultural translation and its relationship with human rights. This matter is analyzed by taking human rights as interfaces of metaphorical intercultural “transduction” rather than as parameters to assess the lawfulness of people’s behaviors or their legal systems of belonging. Such an approach is in tune [...]

The Roman legal experience teaches us that the issues and perspectives to which today's intercultural law is dedicated have historical ‘substantial’ precedents in the institution of jus gentium: indeed, praetor pergrinus offered concrete and effective protection to it through its iurisdictio. This aspect of ‘practical application’ was closely tied, on the [...]

In today’s multicultural society, religious freedom must also be guaranteed within food-use patterns. The Milan Charter (Expo 2015) focuses specifically on this issue. Each person has the right to determine his diet according to his lifestyle and his cultural and religious identity. The right to feed oneself according to one’s own [...]

The Paris events have generated a growing islamophobia in Western countries, linked to the fear of “the other”. Those who are different and who do not fit within a given culture are viewed with suspicion and excluded from society. The fear forces therefor the researcher to look for mechanisms to counter [...]

The concepts of blasphemy and sacrilege have traditionally been etymologically related to religious vocabulary. In the current language of secularized contemporary societies it would be preferable to term them as provocation, incitement to hatred, insult. The tangled relationship between disrespect and freedom of expression must therefore be renewed. The issues at [...]

Sweden has been widely recognized as one of the most modern and progressive European democracies. Swedes themselves often claim they are more democratic, progressive, and intrinsically more “freedom-loving” than other nations. The case of Ellinor Grimmark, a Swedish midwife who has been denied the possibility to conscientiously object to performing abortions [...]

The Islamic religious frontrunners contended that the attitude of Muslims is in contradiction of graven metaphors of any religious figure, including Moses, Jesus, the Prophet of Islam among others, but it is also one of the foremost basics of Islam not to commit violence or attacks, as these obsessive assassins were [...]

First, this essay deals with the concept of human dignity in the twentieth century, the age of totalitarianism. Second, it reflects on human dignity in the technoscientific age, asking what is happening to human nature. Third, it examines the relation between human dignity and the constitutional state. And, finally, it discusses [...]

The essay addresses the relationships, often tragically interwoven, extant between migration debts and asylum applications. This topic is approached in a multidisciplinary way, so as to generate a convergence of legal and anthropological skillsets. The inquiry relies upon field research carried out among Bangladeshi asylum seekers in Italy. Through an intercultural [...]

This essay incorporates the results of an ethnographic-legal investigation promoted by the “Accademia
del Notariato” and carried out among a sample of Italian notaries in order to identify issues that arise when legal assistance, particularly from notaries, is provided to foreign clients. The methodological approach applied consists of qualitative research. The theoretical [...]

In quotidian life, the encounter in space is an encounter of active bodies. It does not occur in a void, but rather within a relational dimension that has been shaped by semantic chisels and interwoven with stories, narrations, and both “real” and “imaginary” recollections. These features of quotidian life are especially [...]

The European Union was born under the sign of ‘unity in diversity’ and pluralism. Such a design with its rather oxymoronic combination of ends has so far found an institutional and procedural synthesis. From a cultural point of view, however, Europe is divided, and efforts towards anthropological translation, at least in [...]

The intercultural occurs in the space between two or more distinct cultures that encounter each other, an area where meaning is translated and difference is negotiated. A systemic understanding of this highly complex process calls for interdisciplinary approaches, but scholars are often constrained by conventionalized conceptual languages of their disciplines, and [...]

The essay analyses the issues that arise in the drafting and interpretation of the last will and testament, exploring the premise that the meaning of each variable depends on its interactions within its cultural contexts of reference. In multicultural and multi-religious societies, interpreting human behaviour or legal acts means that judges [...]

The essay envisages the new, possible professional perspectives that intercultural law seems to open up to young lawyers. At the crossroads between the necessity to supply legal assistance to foreigners and the current crisis that legal professionals undergo, a legal intercultural competence might provide both a way out of the dire [...]

Two fragments of two statutes issued by Constantine, preserved in the Codex Theodosianus and in the Codex Iustinianus, contain the prohibition of jurisdictional activities and of some other forms of work on the dies Solis (Sunday). By means of a detailed survey of the norms issued by the Emperor and his [...]

Europe today is supposed to be a multicultural society in which diversities can coexist within a multicultural public sphere. But the realization of this objective requires new forms of legal equality and traditions of justice which are the main keys of understanding the demands of recognition that rise from the various [...]