Go to main contentGo to navigation menu
University of Catania  >  DSPS
Reserved Area
ITA
Logo UniCt

Degree Course in

Public Administration Management

Search

Sociology of law and PUBLIC administratIONS

Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Carlo PENNISI

Course Structure

The course has three main phases: the first is dedicated to an alignment of knowledge on the topics and the sharing of the necessary key concepts; the second concerns the exposition and discussion of specific contents; the third, in seminar forms, is dedicated to exercising the use of the concepts and theories exposed to the internship and thesis activities

Required Prerequisites

It is advisable to have already taken sociology of law or, at least, some examinations of sociology and law. In the first part of the course, specific lectures and materials will be devoted to align the class on the topics necessary for the continuation of the course.

Attendance of Lessons

Lectures are designed to encourage in-person interaction, which is considered part of the course objectives and subject to assessment.

Detailed Course Content

By means of the most recent reflections and the most reliable research proposed by sociological theory on legal decision-making, an attempt will be made to deepen the specificity of administration with reference to specific themes and problems suggested by the lecturer or proposed by the class, with respect to the internship activities in progress or the thesis work.

 After a phase in which the terms of the autonomy of legal decision-making will be defined, the concepts of communication and decision-making will be dealt with in the light of the sociological theory of action, and the limits recognised to theories of management.

The proposed materials will enable students to reconsider, in the third part of the course, their areas of interest and study in such a way as to specify their sociological profile and enhance their originality, both from a scientific and an operational point of view.

Textbook Information

Luhmann N. (1990), “La positività del diritto come presupposto della società moderna” in La differenziazione del diritto, Bologna, Il Mulino, p.103-146.
Tosini D. (2003) "Il diritto" in Addario N. teoria dei sistemi sociali e modernità, Roma, Carrocci, pp.215-230.

Luhmann N. (1995) Procedimenti giuridici e legittimazione, Milano, Giuffé, capp.I-IV

Luhmann N. (2005), Organizzazione e decisione, Milano, B. Mondadori, capp. 1, 4, 7 e 8.
Pennisi C. (2024) Il diritto come rappresentazione del sistema giuridico, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Maggioli.

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

The examinations, equivalent for attending and nonattending students, will have the following modalities:

A) It will be possible to form working groups on a theme, problem, topic, raised in the course that is considered relevant to other disciplines or thesis. Attending and nonattending students may participate in the groups. The presentation of the work will be individual and public.
B) Attendees will be asked, during the course of the course, to propose reasoned questions on what has been done so far.
The proposed questions will be discussed and reworked in the classroom. The result of the reworking will produce a list of questions that will constitute the written part for the final test for frequent and non-frequent attendees.
Homogeneous sets of four questions will be composed from this list. For the written part of the final examination it will be necessary to choose two of the four questions drawn by lot.
The oral will cover the program from the commentary on the answers formulated.

The two modes are alternatives to each other.

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

The questions, developed in the manner set out in the assessment, will cover the thematic foci of the course.
The positivization of the legal system and the difference between law and the legal system.
The sociological dimension of proceedings, decision-making programs and their relationship to legally recognizable decisions.