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.

The economic operator who voluntarily withdraws from a public procurement procedure lacks standing against its acts, as it only carries an interest of mere fact.

This article summarises the approval process of the Artificial Intelligence Act Proposal, particularly concerning high-risk predictive algorithms, to assess the effect of this legislative change.

In the light of the judgment of the CJEU, Comune di Ginosa C-348/22, the Apulian administrative judge (TAR Lecce) points out that the judgments of the Council of State Ad. Plen. 17 and 18/2020 are contradicted by the CJEU as regards the assessment of the natural resource (both as regards jurisdiction, and substance). Therefore, the deadline set by Law 118/2022 at 31 December 2023, scheduling the expiring date for existing State-owned maritime concessions, ceases to be effective due to Law 14/2023, as a subsequent and equal provision.

On October 14, 2023, Australian electors voted in a referendum regarding a proposal to change the Constitution by explicitly recognizing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the insertion of a Voice to Parliament and Government. A majority of electors in each State voted against the change, as did a majority of electors nationally. Therefore, the referendum failed. This article explains the proposal from a public law perspective and includes brief reflections regarding the public debate surrounding the referendum.

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.

The Portuguese Civil Service has a “schizophrenic dimension” that is a consequence of the “traumatic facts” of its “difficult childhood”, common to all the countries which are part of the “family” of the French administrative Law model, adopted in the period of the liberal State (of the 18th. and the 19th centuries). The current means to enter the Civil Service is through a unified contract for all public employees, which creates a private/public employment relationship. This contractual regime mixes private labour rights and duties with public regulations (including functional duties, like the duty to obey), as well as introduces a duality of jurisdictions. We consider two new phenomena: the increase in the number of senior public administration officials who become political appointees, and the creation of a new kind of "political functionaries" (advisors, assistants), based exclusively on the "public trust" of the members of the Government. These phenomena are responsible for another “schizophrenic situation” relative to the Public Administration, that does not really work like the French way nor the American way.

This contribution summarises the main amendments adopted by the European Parliament during its first reading of the EU’s Proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act). It outlines the impact of this Act, if adopted with such amendments, on automated administrative decision-making (“adm-ADM”), and examines the margin Member States will have to supplement such provisions in their respective national administrative procedure acts. It concludes that the AI Act is a necessary piece of legislation and that, if adopted with some of the Parliament’s amendments, it will adequately regulate the development and use of AI systems by European public authorities, setting a high regulatory standard that can be reinforced by national legislators.

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.

The paper offers a quick review of the Project Manager provided for by the new Code of public contracts of March 31, 2023, and highlights the main features of this central figure in the context of public procurement procedures by comparing it with the already existing Project Manager drawn by the “old” 2016 Code.