23/05/2025 – Virgínia Patrus, Marcelo Galuppo, “La Coscienza di Zeno”. Memoria e Diritto come interpretazione mimetica della realtà [“The Conscience of Zeno”, memory and law as a mimetic interpretation of reality]
This paper analyses the book “La coscienza di Zeno” (1923), by Italo Svevo, comparing the autobiographical narrative of the protagonist with the interpretative characteristic of Law. The plot is led by the protagonist himself, Zeno Cosini, who, diagnosed as neurotic, transcribes his memories in a diary. The writing, however, goes beyond an objective transcription of the facts and becomes an attempt by Zeno to behave as an innocent in the face of his feelings of guilt, revealing, through self-deception, a distortion of his memory. Through mimesis, the protagonist connects isolated or disconnected events using his or her perspective. The story, therefore, becomes subjective and leads the reader to know rather his interpretation of the facts than the description of the facts themselves. The narrative process presented in the work is similar to the process carried out in the legal sphere, characterized by the interpretation of the facts of reality. Law uses the imaginative connectives of those who analyze it to reconstruct stories, making a purely neutral and objective analysis impossible, and building a narrative that transports the real facts back to discourse through mimesis. Svevo’s literary work, therefore, allows a critical reflection on the law in comparison to various discourses.
20/02/2025 – Massimo Farina, I pensieri ultimi di Martino: dalla “profezia” del «Villaggio Elettronico» all’osservazione dell’Infosfera [Martino’s Final Thoughts: From the “Prophecy” of the «Electronic Village» to the Observation of the Infosphere]
Michelangelo Pira’s prophetic vision, as expressed in Il villaggio elettronico, remarkably anticipates the socio-technological dynamics of the digital age. Through an in-depth exploration of the anthropological, legal, and social dimensions of the global network, the “electronic village” is portrayed as a metaphor for universal connectivity and a blueprint for participatory digital democracy. Focusing on critical challenges such as the concentration of informational power and digital inequalities, this study advocates for a network that is both inclusive and sustainable. Pira’s intellectual contributions remain a vital framework for shaping a digital future centered on justice, democracy, and human dignity.
17/02/2025 – Fabio Ciaramelli, Il desiderio di città [The desire for the city]
The desire for the city expresses first and foremost the discomfort of a lack and therefore takes the form of an antidote to an actual or potential loss. Thus, it can be said that the desire for the city is experienced as the hope of keeping open and alive a relationship that is possible, but in no way absolutely guaranteed.
07/02/2025 – Maria Sole Testuzza, “Donne che camminano per la città”. Prime riflessioni storico-giuridiche sulla flânerie femminile [Women Walk the City”. Preliminary Historical-Legal Reflections on Female Flânerie]
The article aims to highlight how women’s freedom to reside and move (walk) in the metropolis has contributed to redefining both the modern concept of female citizenship and the concept of urban space between the 19th and 20th centuries.
07/02/2025 – Anna Sammassimo, I cuori dimenticati dei luoghi. Appunti su trascendenza, comunità e recupero del territorio [Places’ forgotten hearts. Notes on transcendence, community and land recovery]
Religious heritage is central to Italy’s urban and cultural landscape. Despite the historical value, more and more churches and monasteries are losing their original purpose because of secularisation and social demographic changes. Many religious sites end up underused, vacant, or even demolished. Out of all historic buildings, adaptive reuse of the religious heritage sites is particularly valued as a significant community amenity. When churches are no longer used as a place of worship, the buildings are often redeveloped into homes, cultural centers, hotels, or libraries, as it comes in Pirandello’s novel Il fu Mattia Pascal.
27/01/2025 – Marco Buccarella, Michele Mantuano, La “cura” dei beni comuni urbani nell’intersezione tra città e diritto. Problemi e prospettive dell’Amministrazione condivisa nel caso di Vico Corridoio a Foggia [The care of urban commons goods at the intersection of city and law. Problems and perspectives of shared administration in the case of Vico Corridoio in Foggia]
The grassroots reappropriation of urban space is now a global phenomenon at the center of interdisciplinary interest. Citizens, acting as protagonists, aim to overturn the condition of peripheralization of the city by identifying the care of common goods as the grounds for claiming new social rights. Starting from this reflection, the case of Vico Corridoio in the historic center of Foggia presents itself as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a (first) reconnaissance of the new forms of self-organization currently existing in this context. The analyzed case shares the aim of offering an alternative narrative to the stigmatization of the city: from the fight against social marginalization to the promotion of well-being, up to the redemption of the widespread and abandoned cultural heritage. The empirical study will be accompanied by a legal analysis, focusing on legal instruments aimed at promoting social economic, and socio-cultural regeneration and the requalification of buildings and urban spaces in the international and European policy framework. In particular, the analysis will cover the law of the so-called Third Sector and the legal instruments adopted in the Italian framework (i.e. co-programming, co-design, and agreements). In terms of the expected socio-legal impact, the analysis of this initial case and the involved actors, along with an examination of the current legislation, aims to formulate proposals to facilitate its formal recognition by the Public Administration. This is to lay the groundwork for initial hypotheses of shared administration in the care and management of Foggia’s common goods.
27/01/2025 – Monica Mongelli, Creatività urbana e spazio pubblico: il caso del Leoncavallo [Urban Creativity and public space: the case of Leoncavallo]
According to the formulation developed by INWARD National Observatory on Urban Creativity, the expression “urban creativity” tends to bring together the distinct visual cultures of graffiti writing, street art, and new muralism, based on similar traits and specific characteristics. Each of the three cultures was born, matured, and continues its regeneration related to public urban space. Therefore, the complex set of urban creativity generates diversified contents and affects the communities that inhabit, frequent, and pass through urban space. All this is within a capacious and varied legal framework, which is nowadays pushed to question itself about the many particularities phenomenon expresses and requires. The article wishes to exemplify the particular case of Leoncavallo – Self-Managed Public Space in Milan, one of the most important social centers in the country which preserves in its underground area, the Dauntaun, a precious stratification of the first Italian street art.
27/01/2025 – Gustavo Adolfo Nobile Mattei, Il ventre delle città. Esperimenti legislativi, pianificazione urbana e suggestioni letterarie nel Secolo borghese [The underbelly of cities. Legislative experiments, urban planning and literary suggestions in the Bourgeois Century]
In 1884, the city of Naples was struck by a tragic cholera epidemic. The disease brought to the fore all the atavistic ills of the center: lack of running water, lack of an adequate sewage system, and overcrowding. Capable of vividly describing the conditions of the Neapolitan plebeians, Matilde Serao’s prose is recognized as a masterpiece of verist literature. It photographs the human misery e and, at the same time, the problems associated with an ambitious building redevelopment pursued through exceptional legal instruments. The exemplarity of the Neapolitan case, however, should not make us forget that similar housing and social emergencies – with subsequent building speculation – had already been addressed in Haussmann’s Paris. In the same decades, other Italian cities adopted regulatory plans that served as a premise for a transformation of the traditional urban fabric.
20/01/2025 – Giuseppe Mastrominico, La costruzione giuridica delle città alle origini della vicenda espropriativa nazionale: una prospettiva di Law and Humanities [The Legal Construction of Cities at the Origins of the National Expropriation Framework: a Law and Humanities Perspective]
Expropriation for reasons of public utility was the subject of one of the most significant unification laws enacted in 1865. The history of this institution, with its myriad practical implications, is closely tied to the complex topic of the legal construction of Italian cities, reimagined for the first time through a national lens. This fertile field of inquiry reveals how the centralist ambition of the unitary legislator had to contend with diverse demands, which found strong allies in the literature and artistic eclecticism of the late 19th century.
20/01/2025 – Simone Scagliarini, Spazi urbani, prassi sociali e istituti giuridici nella città “elettrica” di Albert Robida [Urban spaces, social practices and legal institutions in Albert Robida’s “electric” city]
The book of Albert Robida Le Vingtième Siècle, under the guise of a coming-of-age novel set within a tale of scientific anticipation, actually conceals an accurate and interesting description of the transformations induced on the city of Paris by the new electronic technologies and, above all, the impact of these on social behavior (and formations) in the urban context. The framework traced by the author thus reveals a technological progress aimed in part at improving living conditions and the progress of the person, but within a general context in which the economic powers seem to be the real directors, profiting widely from the transformations induced by technology.
17/01/2025 – Elisabetta Biondi, Una possibile forma di sostegno fiscale: la Zona Culturale Speciale. Tra recupero urbanistico, sviluppo programmato del territorio e sostegno alla cultura [An available form of fiscal support: the Special Cultural Zone. Urban renewal, planned local development and support for culture]
One of the key objectives in the coming years should be the recovery of urban spaces and their allocation to the development of art and culture, in particular in areas of our cities where places in which citizens can enjoy or experience art and culture are completely or severely lacking. Taxation can play a fundamental role and support local administrations in planning urban renovation and development in favour of the areas of culture and art: culture, art, urban environment, and inclusion are the real challenge for the development of society during this millennium, especially in the most marginalized areas of our large cities. Therefore local administrators should be able, within their territory, to establish “special cultural zones”, in which highly preferential taxation – inspired by what is already provided for “special economic zones” – acts as a driving force and incentive for the recovery of urban spaces and of forms of art and culture in poor quarters and on the urban periphery. On the one hand, these are often large portions of urban territory without theatres, music, and art schools, or locations for events and exhibitions, but, on the other hand, they are full of disused or ruined buildings and land. Fiscal and administrative support to private individuals, associations, or public bodies, to enable them to obtain funds, both at a national and European level, can push for new forms of inclusion and, at the same time, for high-quality economic development.
14/01/2025 – Francesco Seatzu, Quelques réflexions sur l’oeuvre littéraire de Franz Kafka et son importance pour le droit international contemporain [Some Reflections on the Literary Work of Franz Kafka and Its Relevance to Contemporary International Law]
This article explores the connections between the literary work of Franz Kafka, a body of work of universal scope, and international law, particularly contemporary challenges related to access to justice and the protection of human rights. Through analyses of novels such as The Trial, The Castle, In the Penal Colony, Amerika, The Metamorphosis, and The Burrow, the author highlights the tensions between individuals and legal institutions, particularly opaque and dehumanizing bureaucracies, which resonate with current challenges in international law. […] Kafka’s work, with its reflections on the absurd, bureaucracy, and alienation, encourages a critical reflection on the legitimacy and effectiveness of contemporary legal structures, stressing the importance of accessible, transparent justice that genuinely respects human dignity.
10/01/2025 – Mario Riberi, Etica e giustizia nella Roma di Nanni Moretti [Ethic and Justice in Nanni Moretti’s Rome]
The essay examines the Rome described by Nanni Moretti in his films, a space from which spring the director’s reflections on ethics and justice from the mid-1970s until his last film, Il sol dell’avvenire (2023).