Italian Law Research Articles

Health in the palm of your hand-part 2: design and application of an educational module for young people on the risks from smartphone abuse and the opportunities of telemedicine and e-Health.

The evolution of mHealth is strictly related to the evolution of the mobile-technology and in particular of the smartphone. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that excessive use of the smartphone has implications for health in terms of emerging risks and in particular (I) the text neck, (II) the addiction, (III) the use of deceptive Apps in mHealth and today telemedicine and e-Health solutions to face this are strongly needed. What young people need is a package of solutions that allow them to tackle all three of these problems at the same time through dedicated tools and specific material on these topics. However up to now this is lacking. The purpose of the study was the design and application of a teaching package focused in this field and specific for young people, the target population for the emerging risks. A teaching package was developed in a school-work alternation program for the secondary schools at the Italian National Institute of Health, according the Italian Law. It was available on the basis of proposals offered publically. It provided a two weeks stage on the topics: the risks from smartphone abuse and Telemedicine and e-Health solutions. A specific electronic survey in this field was available at the end of the stage. The survey was submitted to 500 young subjects (50% male; 50% females; mean age 15.9 y; std-dev 1.2 y) at school and/or in meeting initiatives. The outcome demonstrated: (I) that the knowledge on the postural risk (text neck) was very poor, while the desiderata of Apps for correcting the posture was very high; (II) the feasibility to obtain feedback on the risk of addiction through a cyber-psychology approach; (III) a worrying position in relation to non-medical Apps confused with the medical ones. The study demonstrated how the young people mBorn can familiarize with some aspects of telemedicine and e-Health and be at the same time a kind of spreader of a correct vision of the ratio between user and smartphone and the knowledge on both the mTech and the related problems.

Co-Composting of Brewers’ Spent Grain with Animal Manures and Wheat Straw: Influence of Two Composting Strategies on Compost Quality

The main challenge of this work is to identify a novel approach to reuse and valorize brewers’ spent grain (BSG) to produce a new source of income for the brewers in terms of self-consumption or selling goods. Therefore, this study explored the composting behavior of BSG mixed with different organic materials: wheat straw with pig slurry solid fraction and wheat straw with sheep manure, MIX1 and MIX2, respectively. The composting process was carried out in bins by comparing two different composting strategies: manual turning (MT) and static composting xxx– without turning operations (ST). During the experimental trial, BSG mixtures were chemically analyzed for pH, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen, total organic carbon, volatile solids, carbon to nitrogen ratio, and moisture content. Furthermore, the final composted materials were evaluated according to the physicochemical and biological limits fixed by the European regulation (2019/1009) and the Italian law (D.Lgs 75/2010). At the end of the composting process, the C/N ratio ranged from 11.6 to 15.5, the humification ratio ranged from 12.4 to 13.8 and the NH4+-N/NO3−-N ratio was lower than 0.5 indicating, in all investigated treatments, a good degree of maturation. However, as evidenced by the high pH values and low Germination Index, the sheep manure, as starting material, proved less effective than the solid fraction of pig slurry, probably due to excessive trampling and slow litter change. Finally, concerning the two composting strategies investigated, the obtained results highlighted that the composting strategy did not affect the final compost quality.

Legal Scholarship Production on CoVid-19: An Analysis on Italian Law Journals’ Articles

In 2020, over 100.000 scientific articles were published on CoVid-19. Scholarly production on this topic has shown exponential growth in multiple disciplines, from medicine to social sciences. Legal scholarly production has also undergone a strong increase in this direction and represents fertile ground for examining and interpreting the myriad of measures that are issued at national and European level to fight the pandemic. The paper intends to focus on Italian legal scholarship production on CoVid-19 and to provide a bibliometric analysis on legal scholarship produced by the Italian law journals indexed by the DoGi-Dottrina Giuridica database. The analysis of this bibliographic resource has made it possible to identify the law journals dealing with the topic, the distribution over time and the raised trend legal topics. This paper represents a first step to identify and explore the issues and challenges that this crisis poses today and in the foreseeable future to jurists.

The Myth of the Law through the Mirror of Humanities: Perspectives on Law, Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Aesthetics

In this Introduction, we present some of the themes currently at the core of law and literature and law and humanities scholarship in Italy. In doing so, we aim at relaunching a peculiar style in Italian law and literature scholarship, by giving value, peculiarly, to its rhetorical and humanistic roots, and especially to what can be traced back to the tradition of Italian thought, across various generations of scholars under the common purpose of depicting forms and modes of the relationship between the dishomogeneous codes of individuality and universality, across diverse methodologies, namely the literary and narrative forms, aesthetics and myth, and the intimate and collective dimensions at the core of psychoanalysis.

The Non-Unique Notion of “Control” in Transfer Pricing – Interpretation, Legislative Developments and Problematic Aspects from an Italian and International Perspective

For their concrete implementation, transfer pricing rules necessarily presuppose a tax-relevant notion of “group”, which is built on the concept of “control” among enterprises. The current definition of “control”, under Italian tax law, is the result of a long and troubled process of refining the legislative text. Over time, the Italian tax authorities have always adopted a far-reaching interpretation of “control”, which went far beyond contractual or shareholding connections (that make relevance for the notion of “control” under the Italian Civil Code), resulting in the application of the TP rules even to cases not representing a distortion of the rules of competition, but rather reflecting situations that can be ordinarily found on the market. The notion of “control” has been finally clarified (and circumscribed) by the recent legislative developments, which – despite a number of persistent interpretative doubts – appear also more in line with the international OECD framework, which is briefly discussed in the present article as well.

Il lascito del proprio corpo a fini didattici e di ricerca. Il nobile (ma vano) intento della legge 10/2020

The essay gives a sharp outline of the recent Italian law ruling body donation to science after death, as a personal choice exclusively founds on a conscious and free act of will. The statute, however, has not been met its aim, lacking of supporting the donor in making his consent fully effective. Indeed, as one of the highest displays of human solidarity, this issue would have required a balance between scientific research interests and individual autonomy protection.

The Italian law on body donation: A position paper of the Italian College of Anatomists

In Italy, recent legislation (Law No. 10/2020) has tuned regulations concerning the donation of one’s postmortem body and tissues for study, training, and scientific research purposes. This study discusses several specific issues to optimise the applicability and effectiveness of such an important, novel regulatory setting.Critical issues arise concerning the learners, the type of training and teaching activities that can be planned, the position of academic anatomy institutes, the role of family members in the donation process, the time frame of the donation process, the eligibility of partial donation, or the simultaneous donation of organs and tissues to patients awaiting transplantation. In particular, a universal time limit for donations (i.e., one year) makes it impossible to plan the long-term use of specific body parts, which could be effectively preserved for the advanced teaching and training of medical students and surgeons. The abovementioned conditions lead to the limited use of corpses, thus resulting in the inefficiency of the whole system of body donation.Overall, the donors’ scope for the donation of their body could be best honoured by a more flexible and tuneable approach that can be used on a case-by-case basis.Furthermore, it is deemed necessary to closely monitor the events scheduled for corpses in public nonacademic institutions or private enterprises. This paper presents useful insights from Italian anatomists with the hope of providing inspiration for drafting the regulations.In conclusion, this paper focuses on the critical issues derived from the recently introduced Italian law on the donation and use of the body after death and provides suggestions to lawmakers for future implementations.

Improved Temporal Trends of Vaccination Coverage Rates in Childhood after the Mandatory Vaccination Act, Italy 2014-2019.

Maintaining high vaccine coverage (VC) for pediatric vaccinations is crucial to ensure herd immunity, reducing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD). The Italian vaccination Law (n. 119/2017) reinforced mandates for polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and hepatitis B, extending the mandate to pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, chickenpox, measles, mumps, and rubella, for children up to 16 years of age. We analyzed the national temporal trends of childhood immunization rates from 2014 to 2019 to evaluate the impact of the mandatory reinforcement law set in 2017 as a sustainable public health strategy in Italy. In a 3-year period, 9 of the 10 compulsory vaccinations reached the threshold of 95% and VC for chicken pox increased up to 90.5%, significantly. During the same period, the recommended vaccinations (against meningococcus B and C, pneumococcus, and rotavirus) also recorded a significant increase in VC trends. In conclusion, although the reinforcement of compulsory vaccination generated a wide public debate that was amplified by traditional and social media, the 3-year evaluation highlights positive results.

Is My University Inclusive? Towards a Multi-Domain Instrument for Sustainable Environments in Higher Education.

We present a pilot study on three Italian Universities using a multi-domain set of indicators for Inclusion. The indicators are expressed in the coding system of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health - ICF - (World Health Organization, 2001). We selected three medium-sized Italian Universities: Brescia, Trieste and Venice. We combined a student-centered Universal Design philosophy for the built environment and Universal Design for Learning for the instructional environment. We identified four ICF Environmental Chapters (E1, E3, E4 and E5) and made them specific to the Academic context. Within the four Environmental Chapters targeting the physical, instructional, cultural, communicative, social and recreational domains we developed a 35-item checklist to fill out. The indicators were qualitative, quantitative or a mixture of the two. The three Universities shared the same instruments. Our main finding is that, although accommodations for students with disabilities exist as mandated by Italian law, the prevailing implementation is an individual accommodation based approach, rather than a universal design approach for the benefit to the greatest extent of the student population.

Compliance and Enforcement in Italian Labour Law

This article examines the main compliance and enforcement techniques in Italian labour law. With regard to compliance techniques, three examples are examined: the sufficient wage, the vicarious liability rule in the case of outsourcing, and health and safety regulations in the light of the EU model. The importance of the strong presence of unions and workers’ representatives inside the workplace is also emphasized. The article then addresses the evolving role of the labour inspectorate in a modern enforcement perspective and the main rules and practices of courts dealing with employment matters, which traditionally play a crucial role in the Italian system. Compliance Techniques – Unions’ Role – Enforcement – Labour Inspections – Labour Courts

How Public Health Professionals View Mandatory Vaccination in Italy-A Cross-Sectional Survey.

In response to the decline in child vaccination coverage and the subsequent occurrence of large vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, in 2017 Italy introduced a new law that made ten vaccines mandatory for children aged 0–16 years. The policy change initiated an ongoing debate among the general public, as well as in the political arena and the scientific community, over this major public health concern. Hence, we conducted a survey aimed at assessing Italian public health professionals’ attitudes towards and opinions on mandatory vaccination. A validated online questionnaire was administered to 1350 members of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Among the 1044 responders (response rate 77%), a large majority were in favour of the Italian mandatory vaccination law (91%) and against its repeal (74%). Nevertheless, according to our sample, maintaining a high level of vaccination coverage without the need to mandate would be preferable, and thus efforts to promote vaccine confidence and proactive vaccine uptake are still needed.

Implementing the EU Directive 2017/541 on Combating Terrorism in a Sustainable Balance Between Efficiency, Security and Rights: The Case Study of the Participation to a Terrorist Group

AbstractEU Directive 2017/541 led to a sort of Copernican revolution in the definition of the system to combat international terrorism. There is not only the definition of the guidelines for a coherent system to combat the phenomenon, but it is explicitly envisaged the need for a compliance with fundamental freedoms, breaking the widespread idea that security and rights cannot coexist in a balanced system. The analysis of the national implementation of international and European legal framework returns the image of domestic systems strongly influenced by the past forms of terrorism experienced at a domestic level. From this point of view, the case-study of the definition of the crime of participation in a terrorist group in the Italian system appears to be paradigmatic of the aforementioned need to find a sustainable balance between the effectiveness of the response and the protection of fundamental rights and guarantees. The experience in the field of political terrorism but above all of mafia-type associations allowed doctrine and jurisprudence to rely on an already mature elaboration of the constitutive elements of the crime even if it was necessary to evaluate the peculiarities of the terrorist phenomenon. Unlike the mafia-type association, the terrorist group is much moreliquidas it is not based on a rigid structure divided into roles but on networks active at transnational level and resulting from the connection between different autonomous cells. As a result Italian case law, not differently from what happened in other national systems, has been oriented to a strong enhancement of the psychological element in the forms of personal adherence to the ideology of Jihad and to a wide application of the crime of participation even in presence of hardly appreciable contributions from a material point of view. These forms of extensive interpretation – also derived from guidelines developed in the context of mafia-type associations and forms of so-called external conspiracy – has not only driven to forms of “subjectivization” of the crime but made participation in a terrorist group the attractive black hole of all minor hypotheses of non-associative offenses. Through the reference to the Italian experience and some solutions adopted by jurisprudence, this article aims at assuming how the use – or better the history repeating – of the classic causation model could be a useful solution to recover the legality of the crime of participation and to restore autonomous space for the application of the minor hypotheses already provided by the same Directives 541/2017 in a sustainable balance between collective security and protection of fundamental principles.

Multi-Scale Minero-Chemical Analysis of Biomass Ashes: A Key to Evaluating Their Dangers vs. Benefits

A multi-methodic analysis was performed on five samples of fly ashes coming from different biomasses. The aim of the study was to evaluate their possible re-use and their dangerousness to people and the environment. Optical granulometric analyses indicated that the average diameter of the studied fly ashes was around 20 µm, whereas only ~1 vol% had diameters lower that 2.5 µm. The chemical composition, investigated with electron probe microanalysis, indicated that all the samples had a composition in which Ca was prevalent, followed by Si and Al. Large contents of K and P were observed in some samples, whereas the amount of potentially toxic elements was always below the Italian law thresholds. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were completely absent in all the samples coming from combustion plants, whereas they were present in the fly ashes from the gasification center. Quantitative mineralogical content, determined by Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data, indicated that all the samples had high amorphous content, likely enriched in Ca, and several K and P minerals, such as sylvite and apatite. The results obtained from the chemo-mineralogical study performed make it possible to point out that biomass fly ashes could be interesting materials (1) for amendments in clayey soils, as a substitution for lime, to stimulate pozzolanic reactions and improve their geotechnical properties, thus, on the one hand, avoiding the need to mine raw materials and, on the other hand, re-cycling waste; and (2) as agricultural fertilizers made by a new and ecological source of K and P.

Who is entitled to family benefits? Lights and shadows of the ECJ rulings in WS and VR

In WS and VR the Court of Justice interpreted the right to equal treatment afforded by EU law to third-country nationals holding a single permit or a long-term resident’s status as preventing national provisions which, differently from nationals and EU citizens, exclude their family members residing abroad from the calculation of a family unit allowance. While the two rulings upheld an established trend in Italian national case law, the reasoning of the Court raises critical concerns over the correct identification of the beneficiaries of family benefits. Thus, the interpretation supported by the Court is likely to restrict the scope of the right to equal treatment in an unexpected way. Having analysed the two judgments, the present paper discusses why the Court should have taken a different position in that specific regard.

Preparedness and activities of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma bank in the Veneto region (Italy): An organizational model for future emergencies

BackgroundConvalescent plasma (CP) has been used in the past in various pandemics, in particular in H1N1, SARS and MERS infections. In Spring 2020, when ongoing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemics, the Veneto Region (V-R) has proposed setting-up an anti-SARS-CoV-2 CP (CCP) Bank, with the aim of preparing a supply of CCP immediately available in case of subsequest epidemic waves. Materials and MethodsKey-points to be developed for a quick set-up of the V-R CCP Bank have been recruitment of donors recovered from COVID-19 infection, laboratory analysis for the biological qualification of the CCP units, including titre of neutralizing antibodies and reduction of pathogens, according to National Blood Centre (CNS) Directives, adaptation of the V-R Information Technology systems and cost analysis. Some activities, including diagnostic and viral inactivation processes, have been centralized in 2 or 3 sites. Laboratory analysis upon preliminary admission of the donor included all tests required by the Italian laws and the CNS directives. ResultsFrom April to August 2020, 3,298 people have contacted the V-R Blood Transfusion Services: of these, 1,632 have been evaluated and examined as first time donors and those found to be suitable have carried out 955 donations, from which 2,626 therapeutic fractions have been obtained, at a cost around 215,00 Euro. Since October 2020, the number of COVID-19 inpatients has had a surge with a heavy hospital overload. Moreover, the high request of CCP therapy by clinicians has been just as unexpected, showing a wide therapeutic use. ConclusionsThe organizational model here presented, which has allowed the rapid collection of a large amount of CCP, could be useful when facing new pandemic outbreaks, especially in low and middle income countries, with generally acceptable costs.

Methadone overdose in patients following methadone mainte- nance treatment:A three years overview in the district of Bari (South-Italy).

Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is reco-gnized as a reference treatment for opioid dependence. According to Italian Law, at the beginning of the treatment patients must receive medication under the supervision of a physician, to avoid overdose. After a period of stability, patients could be allowed to take methadone at home in pre-arranged and personalized concentrations, in order to empower their self-responsibility. The aim of the present investigation is to underline the presence of a "glitch in the system" of the MMT. In the last three years, 7 forensic autopsies and toxi-cological analysis on corpses of regular opioid users were performed into the Institute of Legal Medicine of Bari. Therefor an improvement of the MMT's guideline is needed to reduce methadone overdose deaths in future. In all these cases very high methadone concentration in blood were found. All the 7 subjects were following a MMT in a Public Health Institute and the cause of death was respiratory depression by overdose of methadone in 6 cases.

Noise pollution. ECHR jurisprudence facing off Italian law and cases

As well known the European Convention on Human Rights doesn’t cover, in explicit terms, any right to a healthy environment. Nevertheless the European Court of Human Rights has developed its case-law in environmental matters grounded on right of life; right to property, rights to privacy and quite that have been infringed also in the case that the State not successful strike a fair balance between the interest of economic well-being and the applicant’s effective enjoyment of her right. In some cases these principle ground the Sate responsibility for noise pollution, even which one related to so-called movida. From these starting point the paper look at the Italian law and jurisprudence

The Italian Legislature and International and EU Obligations of Domestic Criminalisation

Abstract This article explores the nature and content of international and EU obligations to adopt certain criminal domestic legislation, and the impact that they have on the Italian legislature. In light of relevant international, EU, and domestic law provisions, the article investigates what is required of Italy to implement obligations of domestic criminalisation. It is argued that the Italian legislature is bound to implement obligations of domestic criminalisation both under international law and the Italian constitutional law. The article ends with an overview of the legal consequences that Italy may face for failure to implement international and EU obligations of domestic criminalisation.

Legal Ignorance in Italian Private Law

The paper examines legal ignorance and its interpretation in Italian private law. Moving from a problematic and interdisciplinary approach, it analyses the legal sources which refer to ‘ignorance of the law’ (mainly, but not only in private law) under various circumstances and the interpretation given to this notion by different branches of the judiciary. Scope of the report is to provide both an overview of the theoretical foundations for allowing or denying justification on grounds of legal ignorance and to highlight the most problematic aspects deriving from its current applications in contemporary digital societies.

JUDGMENT BASED ON AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES IN CROATIAN LAW: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS FROM THE COMPARATIVE LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

This paper considers judgments based on agreement of the parties in Croatian law, more precisely particular aspects of this consensual form which previous studies have assessed to be potentially problematic. These aspects include the objectives of reaching agreement, the gravity of criminal offences subject to agreement, the role of the court, and the legal position of the defence and that of the victim. These aspects are analysed primarily from a comparative-law perspective, since the Croatian version of plea bargaining, just like specific models adopted in some other European countries, was inspired by the same American model. Besides American law, the research includes Italian, French, Swiss, German and Austrian law. The goal of the comparative research is to find out whether the Croatian model contains some specific features which perhaps differ from positive comparative European legal solutions, but also result in theoretical and practical problems. The study will also include analysis of the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia concerning primarily the issue of judicial control over the agreement of the parties, which has been most disputed in domestic literature and in judicial practice.