Rassegne e commenti

The paper analyses the relationship between public and private actors in the context of the Italian National Health Service. This relationship not only characterizes and conditions the structure and organisation of the NHS, but also affects the right to health of citizens-users.

The paper deals with the increased intervention of States in the economy in a historical phase of de-globalisation and changing geopolitical balances. Tensions are arising in the relations between the European Union and the United States as a consequence of the approval of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, that encourages productive investments located in the United States, thereby altering competition. The paper dwells on the Italian “golden power” regulation that introduces public control that significantly affects freedom of enterprise. The paper ends with the hope that the increased intervention of the State will not frustrate the achievements of the regulatory State, established since the 1980s in Western countries.

The paper suggests the rise of a modern principle of residuality, which exceeds the balance between regulation and competition. This principle calls for the justification of regulation in terms of necessity. Problem drivers should be also taken into consideration, as well as the regulatory content. The problem drivers appear to be enriched compared to the traditional ones, whilst also being disentangled from problems that have already materialized so as to embrace a prospective and anticipatory approach.

The contribution deals with the application of the principle of proportionality in the jurisprudence developed by national courts, the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to sanctions in the context of urban planning and construction. To this end, it first analyses the traditional categories of sanctions as they have been developed by national case-law. Secondly, it evaluates whether and how the principles developed by CJEU and ECHR have led to change.

In 2025, the obligation for Austrian public officials to maintain confidentiality about all facts of which they have obtained knowledge exclusively from their official activity, enshrined in Article 20 (3) of the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) and thus of constitutional status, will celebrate its centenary. Since 1987, flanked by an obligation to impart information pursuant to Article 20 (4) B-VG, it guarantees the protection of information acquired by the public administration when communicating with citizens. With a view to a transparent administration, several attempts have been made since the beginning of the millennium to replace official secrecy with freedom of information in order to achieve a “transparent state”. However, despite the high degree of digitalization of the Austrian public administration, the path to this goal remains still challenging.

The paper analyses how the “culture of suspicion” hinders the contractual activity of public administration. The “culture of suspicion” consists in the perception that every negotiation procedure is the harbinger of crimes and/or “maladministration”. The effects of this “culture of suspicion” consist of immobilism and inertia, since they inhibit the full recourse to discretionary and efficient actions, so that public officials avoid choices which can be risky in terms of penal, civil and administrative liability. In this context, the idea of contracts awarded by central purchasing bodies (contracting authorities) can play a crucial role. This is because the attribution to a single body of the competence to buy goods and services on the market, in addition to achieving positive “economies of scale”, can also increase the professionalism of the public officials operating within the contracting authorities and promote the transparency of tendering procedures. The paper focuses also on a critical analysis of the current regulatory framework, both at the national and EU level, trying to evaluate and propose necessary reforms and improvements.

Judicial systems are experiencing a period of strong institutional and social pressure to improve, on the one hand, their effectiveness and efficiency and on the other, to increase their level of transparency and accountability. This is particularly evident in the Italian context, in which the debate regarding the judicial system has always been very heated and where numerous attempts at reform have taken place. Among other things, a new reform of the judicial system is considered the sine qua non for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). This article aims to explore the dissemination of socio-environmental and sustainability reporting among Italian judicial offices, with particular regard to the factors that facilitate and hinder such practices. To this end, a survey involving 430 offices belonging to the Italian ordinary justice system was conducted. The survey, based on 57 valid responses, highlights a very limited dissemination of sustainability reporting, despite the fact that there is a good knowledge of its function and therefore an awareness of its potential usefulness. Interesting results are highlighted in reference to the factors hindering or facilitating the related processes. Last but not least, the paper suggests some implications for policy makers and public administration that are willing to take this path.

This paper analyses how interventions of the EU represent both challenges and opportunities: on the future of Europe, the rule of law, the economy, digitalisation. The appraisal takes account of the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which have influenced those interventions: indeed, the consequences of the war come on top of the demands of the Conference as far as the future of Europe is concerned, are superadded to the anti-Covid actions as far as the growth of the economy is concerned, and make the process of securing the digital sovereignty of the Union more urgent. In closing, the article puts forward a number of reflections, in particular it is asked whether in this new context the EU is emerging as a political actor, whether it has the ambitions consonant with its development, whether it can succeed in governing the profound social changes necessitated by digitalisation and, lastly, whether it continues to be a bulwark for the defence of democracy.

This article aims to investigate the distinctive features of the phenomenon of urban regeneration as an expression of the principle of sustainable development, in light of the digital administration model, i.e., a new structure designed to promote the digitalisation of decision-making procedures and a transformation of administrative functions, using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).These elements should be the principles upon which the new urban development model is to be based. The influence of ICT on environmental assessments is crucial to fully understand both the potential and challenges faced by the Italian legislator when addressing urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to propose a method to achieve the best possible interaction between traditional and innovative forms of urban regeneration, trying to identify, specifically, how local authorities can take advantage of new technologies both in a procedural and environmental perspective. It is emphasized how innovative technological solutions today find their highest expression in the development of a new urban model – the renewable energy community – which is one of the means identified to pursue the goals set out by the SDG No. 11 drafted by the United Nations.

The institutional system and decision-making procedures of the EU are based on role splitting (Georges Scelles’ dédoublement fonctionnel) by political holders of executive power and their administrations in the member states, who act as organs of the state and, at the same time, of the EU. The Union embodies a form of executive federalism similar to that of Germany, with all the problems of an interlocked political system (Politkverflechtung) e.g., the so-called joint decision trap (Fritz W. Scharpf’s Politkverflechtungsfalle). The development of European integration has strengthened member states’ executives at the expense of parliaments, and central executives in relation to local and regional authorities. However, this strengthening has been accompanied by a blurring of the lines of accountability.