Court Of Milan Research Articles

The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case

Abstract While English-medium Instruction (EMI) continues to be appealing for various stakeholders, it also raises some epistemological and ethical concerns, which have in the past found expression in polarized debates. A well-known example is the 2012 Milan court case, in which the academic staff sued the Polytechnic University of Milan over its attempt to promote an EMI-only policy. Now almost ten years after the case, the motivations of the key proponents and opponents of the policy are yet to be explored in depth. In order to explain how different interpretations of EMI could result in such unreconcilable positions, in this paper we adopt a new analytical angle, focusing on two elite participants: the rector who promoted the policy and the lawyer (also a faculty member) who represented the lecturers in court. Via a critical discourse analysis of interviews to these participants, we aim to unveil how different stakeholders from the same context frame EMI in relation to ideas of justice/injustice. Results indicate that, despite comparable personal commitment to education and similar understandings of language/power interactions, the participants evaluate English against different frames of reference (i.e. a horizon of globalized education, versus the traditional national understanding of the goals of education). This leads to diametrically opposite evaluations of the growing presence of English in higher education.

The protection of Harmont & Blaine’s dachshund in a recent decision of the Milan Court of First Instance

Abstract The Milan Court of First Instance ruled in favour of Harmont & Blaine (H&B) and its stylized logo trade marks of a dachshund depicted in profile, in the context of non-infringement proceedings brought by Thom Browne Inc and Thom Browne Retail Italy Srl (also TB and TBRI) against H&B. TB and TBRI were using several stylized dachshunds in profile as distinctive sign arguing that they were different from H&B’s dachshund and also stating that the image of such a dachshund could not be, in any case, monopolized. The court recognized the similarity between H&B’s trade marks and TB and TBRI’s logos since they were reproducing the H&B trade mark’s core, ie the stylized logo of a dachshund.

De la o factură de electricitate la supremația dreptului european: astfel s-a născut doctrina Costa c. Enel

Whilst Costa vs. ENEL is the locus classicus for most accounts of the primacy of European law, the story of that lawsuit is still relatively unknown. What drove Flaminio Costa to sue his electricity provider over a bill of as little as ₤1.925 (about €22 in 2020)? Why did the Small-claims Court of Milan decide to involve both the Italian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice in such a „petty” lawsuit? Why did those two courts hand down such different rulings? How did the lawsuit end when it came back from Luxembourg? Relying upon previously undisclosed court documents and interviews with some of the actors involved, this paper seeks to shed some light on the less-known aspects of the Costa v ENEL lawsuit, against the background of electricity nationalization in Italy at the height of the Cold War, and to assess the contribution of that lawsuit and of its „architect”, Gian Galeazzo Stendardi, to the approfondissement of the doctrine of primacy of European law.

Aiding and Abetting Suicide: The Current Debate in Italy.

The article analyzes the recent ruling of the Italian Constitutional Court amending article 580 of the Italian Criminal Code, relating to aid and incitement to suicide. According to the first Assize Court of Milan, article 580, conceived in 1930, reflects the fascist culture of its author. The problem of the Constitutional Court was therefore to establish whether a democratic state can still place limits on aid for suicide and in what terms it can do so.

Italian court rules against Dolce&Gabbana in a case concerning unauthorized use of Maradona’s name on a jersey

Milan Court of First Instance, Case 41088/2017, decision 11374/2019, 9 December 2019 In a decision issued in late 2019, the Milan Court of First Instance has ruled that the unauthorized use, by fashion house Dolce&Gabbana, of former footballer Diego Armando Maradona’s name on a jersey infringed his image rights. In 2017, Maradona brought legal proceedings against Dolce&Gabbana in relation to the unauthorized use, by the latter, of his name on a jersey worn by a model during a fashion show held in Naples in 2009. The jersey, which was sold neither before nor after the show, carried the number ‘10’, ie the same number used by Maradona while at Napoli football club. It also displayed the same colour combination as Napoli jerseys. Images of the jersey appeared on general interest media and also on the Dolce&Gabbana website. Maradona claimed damages for EUR 1 million due to the unauthorized commercial exploitation of his name. He submitted that Dolce&Gabbana’s use of his name had allowed them to take an unfair advantage of his repute and also likely misled the public into believing that there would be a commercial association between himself and the defendants.

Italian court orders Amazon not to sell luxury cosmetics subject to a selective distribution network

Abstract Case 50977/2018 Sisley Italia et al v Amazon Core Europe et al (Sisley v Amazon) (2019) District Court of Milan, Commercial Law Chamber, Decision of 28 March 2019 In upholding an application for an interlocutory injunction, the District Court of Milan ordered Amazon to refrain from marketing, selling, promoting or advertising on its Amazon Marketplace Sisley high - quality cosmetics. The court considered that offering luxury products alongside low-quality goods on the same Internet site: (i) is incompatible with the qualitative standards, which the members of the selective distribution system covering the said cosmetics have to respect; (ii) constitutes trade mark infringement as the existence of a lawful selective distribution network is a legitimate reason for the non-application of the exhaustion principle.

Selective Distribution Networks for the Marketing of Luxury Branded Products Versus the Amazon Marketplace: The Sisley v Amazon Case before the Court of Milan

By an interlocutory order the District Court of Milan found that putting on sale on an electronic marketplace branded luxury products according to selling modalities that differ from the qualitative standards that the supplier has imposed on the resellers admitted to the selective distribution network created for the marketing of those products amounts to a trademark infringement. The Court of Milan confirms that the existence of a lawful competition-compliant selective distribution system constitutes a legitimate reason for not applying the principle of exhaustion. And more importantly, for the first time in Italy, the Court of Milan expressly found that the online sale of branded luxury products in defiance of the selling conditions imposed by the head of a selective distribution network infringes the trademark rights of the latter on such products. This paper reviews the decision of the Court of Milan and gives an insight into its practical implications.

From an Unpaid Electricity Bill to the Primacy of EU Law: Gian Galeazzo Stendardi and the Making of Costa v. ENEL

Abstract Whilst Costa v. ENEL is the starting point for most accounts of the primacy of EU law, the story of that lawsuit is still relatively unknown. What drove Flaminio Costa to sue his electricity provider over a bill of as little as £1,925 (about €22 in 2019)? Why did the small-claims court of Milan decide to involve both the Italian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice in such a ‘petty’ lawsuit? Why did those two courts hand down rulings going in opposite directions? How did the lawsuit end when it came back to the Milan small-claims court? Relying upon previously undisclosed court documents and interviews with some of the actors involved, this article seeks to shed some light on the less-known aspects of the Costa v. ENEL lawsuit, against the background of electricity nationalization in Italy at the height of the Cold War, and to assess the contribution of that lawsuit and of its ‘architect’, Gian Galeazzo Stendardi, to the development of the doctrine of primacy of European Union law.

Case translation: Italy

Tribunale sez. V, Milano, 18/10/2016, n. 11402, Court of Milan, V Civil, 18 October 2016
 Italy; evidence of contract; e-mails; validity of electronic signature; payment of invoices; Code of the Digital Administration decree 82/2005; Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73–114

Milan court grants suppliers of luxury cosmetics interim relief against infringers of selective distribution networks

Milan court grants suppliers of luxury cosmetics interim relief against infringers of selective distribution networks

After the Italian Constitutional Court's ruling on the absence of criminal liability for assisted suicide: the role of ethics committees and clinical ethics. Editorial.

The Constitutional Court handed down a judgment on 25 September 2019 following on from that Court’s Order No 207 of 24 October 2018. The issue of constitutionality of Article 580 of the Criminal Code, in the part about the punishment of the aid to suicide, was raised by the Court of Milan. According to the Court “under certain conditions, a person who facilitates the execution of the suicide intention, autonomously and freely formed, of a patient kept alive by life support treatments and affected by a irreversible pathology, source of physical or psychological suffering that he considers intolerable but fully capable of making free and conscious decisions”. According to the Court, a local ethics committee must provide an opinion in all cases involving a request for medically-assisted suicide.

Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA

Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA

Process tracing change management: the reform of the Italian judiciary

PurposeIn 2009, the Italian Government initiated a national programme to improve the management of judicial offices. Programme implementation has been patchy and unsatisfactory in all but a few cases. Against this background, the Law Court of Milan has achieved exceptional results and is now recognised as a good practice benchmark for Italy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this case in order to reconstruct the local conditions for successful implementation of the national programme.Design/methodology/approachTo test a theory of the programme based on leaders’ engagement, their access to managerial knowledge, and the transfer and consolidation of that knowledge, the present study applies process tracing, a qualitative method that uses Bayesian reasoning to improve the accuracy of within-case inferences.FindingsThe analysis shows how programme and context features interacted to support change. In particular, while the national programme succeeded in providing resources for leader engagement and knowledge access, the transfer and consolidation of managerial knowledge depended largely on a brokerage function performed locally between consultants and magistrates.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on the local conditions for change management and does so by employing an innovative qualitative method that improves the reliability of within-case inferences.

Milan court finds trade mark infringement and unfair competition in biscuit-shaped cushions

In a decision issued in early 2018, the Court of First Instance (Tribunale) of Milan held that producer of pasta and baked products Barilla could oppose the making and marketing of cushions shaped like several of the former’s well-known biscuits.

Symmaque dans le Contra Symmachum de Prudence : enjeux et significations d’une mise à mort littéraire

In his Contra Symmachum, probably written in 404, Prudentius, a poet of triumphant Christianism, attacks an emblematic figure of Paganism, senator Symmachus, famous for his skills as an orator. In the famous Relatio 3 written in 384 and addressed to Emperor Valentinian the 3rd, Symmachus protested against the withdrawal of the Victory’s altar from the Roman curia and the end of some privileges of the Pagan clergy, and especially the Vestals. The aim of this paper is to show that the literary «killing » of orator Symmachus and his speech is at the centre of the poem’s meaning. Prudentius obviously manipulates the figure of Symmachus, probably recently dead, to promote a radical Christianization of the Roman civilization in front of young emperor Honorius and his regent Stilicho. This view is very far from the one given a few months before by Claudian, the culturally Pagan poet of the court of Milan in his De bello Getico.

Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Prima Sezione Civile, Ordinanza 20 Aprile 2017

Journal Article Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, Prima Sezione Civile, Ordinanza 20 Aprile 2017: Civil Court of Milan, First Division, Italy: Flamini J: 20 April 2017 Get access Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Volume 6, Issue 3, October 2017, Page 624, https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwx039 Published: 03 October 2017

Some predictive factors of the duration of civil proceedings: an analysis performed about the Court of Appeal of Milan

In Italy the duration of civil proceedings is considered unduly excessive. Nevertheless, there are few studies aimed at identifying the determinants of the proceedings’ duration. The data analysed in this study are civil proceedings registered at the Court of Milan. The variables considered in the study are: year of proceedings registration; whether proceedings were first or review; roll (type of proceedings); date of the first hearing and number of judicial hearings; number of parties and lawyers; closure; age of the judge at the time of proceedings’ closure. The analysis makes it possible to observe that the duration of a case is influenced both by uncontrollable factors often related to the complexity of the case (such as the jurisdiction, the number of lawyers and therefore of parties, the judgement) and by factors that could be influenced to reduce the duration, such as the number of judicial hearings or the time fixed for the hearing.

PAC (PREVENTIVE ARRANGEMENT WITH CREDITORS): A TOOL TO SAFEGUARD THE ENTERPRISE VALUE.

Italian Insolvency Law has been widely reformed since 2005 in order to introduce new legal procedures aimed at preserving troubled companies, discerning viable from irredeemable businesses, and increasing productivity through a more efficient management of insolvency proceedings. The excessive duration of bankruptcy cases was repeatedly brought to the attention of the European Court of Human Rights, relating to the right to a fair trial in terms of reasonable duration. After the reform, the Preventive Arrangement with Creditors (Concordato Preventivo) became Italy’s equivalent of US’s Chapter 11 and can be considered the main instrument used by small and medium-sized companies (and sometimes large ones) to manage insolvency by avoiding bankruptcy. This paper provides an empirical analysis on filing of Preventive Arrangements with Creditors in the Court of Milan, one of the largest courts in Italy, in the 2005-2014 period. Through the exam of 720 cases, 60% of the total number, the research shows the different features of the procedure, analyzes the characteristics of companies that resort to it and its diverse purposes of liquidation or restructuring. Due largely to the newness of the legislation, along with the complexity of the Italian system, it is rather difficult to generalize conclusions. Nevertheless, the paper shows how Preventive Arrangements with Creditors can be considered a more efficient instrument than the alternative bankruptcy, both in terms of timeframe as well as with creditors‘ satisfaction. As part of the overall European reform process of insolvency proceedings, following the 2014 Recommendation issued by the European Commission, Italy seems to provide useful insights for other countries in Europe.

Social Reporting in the Italian Justice System: Milan Court Experience

This research analyzes social reporting in Italian court offices, focusing in particular on the latest Milan Court social report, and underlining the problems encountered by operators when applying social reporting methodologies to complex organizations. The results are not very satisfactory—the deficiencies identified do not allow overcoming the three major issues that voluntary reporting entails. In summary, the research shows how difficult it is to adopt social reporting procedures within complex institutions and the need to elaborate new methodologies. Social reporting can have a fundamental role in generating public value; therefore the study is far from over, because of the importance of checking, in the future, the progress (or regress) of judicial offices along this path and to consider the need to create a specific model for these public entities.

An Illuminated Schoolbook for Ludovico Sforza: Portraiture in Educational Manuscripts at the Court of Milan

The educational manuscripts commissioned by the Sforza dukes and duchesses of Milan for their children in the second half of the fifteenth century contain elaborate portraits and genealogies that served to legitimize their dynasty. A remarkable yet understudied example is the schoolbook known as the Codice Sforza, made in 1467 for the fifteen-year-old Ludovico Sforza, the future Milanese despot. Transcribed by Ludovico himself, the text consists of commentaries composed by his humanist tutor Francesco Filelfo on the Rhetorica ad Herennium. The elaborate series of portraits of Milanese rulers, ancient military heroes, Ludovico, and Filelfo, celebrates the Sforza as the illustrious heirs of the Visconti dukes and heroes of antiquity, and provided Ludovico with virtuous models. This article presents new proposals regarding the manuscript’s patron, the authorship of the illuminations, and the significance of the codex in the context of Sforza politics and Ludovico’s future patronage.