Articoli

The first decade of the Italian anti-corruption system provides an overview of both positive and negative elements that have emerged from the experience of public administrations. This analysis, however, is also carried out in relation to the field of public integrity. It is a broader perspective of the good governance system, where corruption prevention must be developed within an integrated strategic and organisational framework. This contribution seeks to reflect on Italian anti-corruption, attempting to answer several questions. Is it still right to insist on the need for a corruption prevention policy? What could be the necessary corrections to be made to this model? After a brief initial excursus on the evolution of the legal framework, an analysis is made of the strengths and weaknesses of this policy, which can be deduced from the twofold practical activities of public administrations. The second part focuses on the topic of public integrity, with particular regard to integrity as a legal principle in the public sector. In the final part, the extent to how much the Italian system of corruption prevention is in line with public integrity is examined.

In its European Strategy for Data, the Commission presents its ideas on how the EU can create a «single European data space». The plan is to make the EU a leader in a data-driven society. By creating a single market for data, it will allow it to flow freely within the EU and across sectors for the benefit of businesses, researchers, and public administrations. One central factor in the European data space is putting in place clear and trustworthy data governance mechanisms. Focusing on publicly held data, the administrative structures in the Open Data Directive, the Data Governance Act (DGA), and the first sectoral data space proposed, the European Health Data Space (EHDS), are analyzed. The question posed in the article is whether the administrative structure that has been developed in the EU for the last decades, the European composite administration, is well placed to fulfil the ideal of clear and trustworthy data governance.

This essay concerns the protection of freedom of expression in the EU legal system. The paper aims to identify the limits of, and possible restrictions to, this fundamental right. The paper focuses on the reaction of the European Union to the regime propaganda promoted by several Russian broadcasters to justify the attack on Ukraine. The paper has three aims. First, the paper evaluates whether the limitations on freedom of information, contained in the EU sanctions, represents a novelty in European law regarding human rights. Second, the paper highlights the recent trends in European jurisprudence regarding the protection of freedom of expression (“hate speech” and “fake news”), and considers their interaction with the recent sanctions of the European Council. Finally, the paper addresses whether the EU General Court, called upon to assess the legitimacy of these sanctions, followed the established process to conclude that the compression of freedom of expression is justified.

This paper examines the implementation of artificial intelligence in decision-making processes within public administration, with a focus on addressing the challenges of transparency, accountability, and the intelligibility of AI-generated decisions. The paper discusses the importance of imputability in decisions made with deep learning algorithms. It emphasises that by granting public administrations full control over the training dataset, source code, and knowledge base, the imputability of the decision can be ensured. This control enables administrations to validate the relevancy and accuracy of the algorithm's training data, address potential biases, and comply with legal and ethical requirements. The paper then proposes the use of Large Language Models (LLM) as a solution to enhance the transparency and motivation behind AI-assisted decisions. It highlights that LLMs can generate articulate and comprehensible textual outputs that closely resemble human-generated decisions, allowing for a deeper understanding of the decision-making process. Furthermore, the paper emphasises the significance of providing access to the training dataset, source code, and individual administrative precedents to enhance transparency and accountability. It argues that by offering these components, stakeholders can evaluate the validity and reliability of AI-assisted decisions, fostering trust in the decision-making process.

This study delves into the concept of maintaining a balanced relationship in long-term contracts between public and private law, specifically in the context of procurement and concession contracts. The main objective of the paper is to explore the challenges related to unforeseen circumstances and contract renegotiation, while analyzing the clauses for price revision and contractual amendments outlined in legislative decree n. 36/2023.

The diffusion of new telematic technologies has generated profound changes in the contractual typologies drawn up by publishers and offered to academic institutions or purchasing centres. These pose significant tax problems due to the need to demarcate between publishing products and the provision of services. Territoriality for VAT purposes makes the matter more complex in relation to "publication services", the subject of new contractual types being adopted, including "compact" contracts of a transformative nature, concerning continuous services of access/use of online databases and scientific journals and the publication of scientific articles on those databases. The novelty and uncertainty of the reference regulatory framework has led publishers and buyer networks to request multiple opinions from the financial administration through the preventive consultation procedure. This essay examines the solutions offered by administrative practice in order to address the tax problems deriving from the new contractual typologies in the field of electronic journals, in particular outlining the applicable regime for VAT purposes.

Globally, governments and private parties such as businesses, NGOs, and individuals struggle to handle a growing number of used electronic devices. There are poisoning effects on land that often take many years to emerge, hindering several attempts to achieve land degradation neutrality. Legislation and legal enforcement must concentrate on eliminating and neutralizing dangerous compounds from e-waste, ensuring proper storage and preventing illicit trading. After examining relevant public international law and concerned organizations, a worldwide scenario and taxonomy of the relevant UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are assessed. The paper concludes that although public authorities are working hard to reduce environmental pollution caused by e-waste, existing international, regional, and national legislative tools and approaches could be more effectively implemented. It is necessary to take global actions to ensure environmental protection and human safety while addressing ambiguities in both national and international law.

The article highlights how public contracts are a crucial variable for the future of the government administration but at the same time represent a great challenge due to their complexity of the subject and the difficulty of in regulating them it in a simple yet effective way. The text article focuses on the many interests that the public administration has to consider when awarding contracts and how the new procurement Aact tries to combine a more streamlined discipline approach with the pursuit of the objectives of legality and transparency. The difficulty of achieving this goal can be seen is testified byin the recent experience of the UK legal system, which after Brexit is in the process of adopting a reform of public contract law that, despite the declared political intentions, still has many aspects in common with European and continental law.

This article analyses the new text of the Public Contracts Code with reference to the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection, neither of which are expressly mentioned among the new provisions. This examination provides an opportunity to reconstruct, according to Eu and national law, the role of the contracting authorities in pursuing environmental sustainability through public procurement. The approach followed in the new Code seems to be in line with the previous mandatory-rigid approach. Nevertheless, according to the principle of trust, corrective “functional” measures can be adopted to ensure that the processes of public procurement minimize damage to the environment and foster innovation.

The article aims to explore the role of oral hearing in Slovenian and Italian administrative procedural law. In both countries the oral hearing is a pivotal moment in the judicial review of administrative decisions. The study aims to identify common elements in each system to determine a unitary content of oral hearing as a human right.