The provision of relief to civilians in armed conflict is a sensitive activity, subject to specific regulation in IHL treaties. Challenges emerged on the ground have questioned the comprehensive nature of this legal framework and generated debate on the concept of humanitarian assistance itself, the role of different kinds of actors (local/external, governmental/nongovernmental, armed/unarmed) in providing it, and the value and meaning of the principles traditionally associated to it—humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence. This research, examining the evolution of State practice and opinio juris, provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal regime applicable to the provision of relief to civilians in armed conflict and the different categories of actors involved in it, identifying answers offered by international law (primarily IHL) to issues emerged in practice. It is argued that humanitarian assistance is a well-defined and limited concept under IHL. Rules on this issue have been subject to progressive development, e.g. those on the protection of humanitarian workers in non-international armed conflict, but State practice has revealed that sovereignty remains important, and the principles of humanitarian assistance continue to embody the balance acceptable to States between military necessity and humanitarian considerations. No right to access or to provide humanitarian assistance without consent from the Parties concerned has developed, including no right to provide relief in non-international armed conflict in territory controlled by non-State armed groups without State consent. Participation in the provision of humanitarian assistance by local and external actors is not prohibited, but the level of protection they enjoy depends on their position under IHL. Different regimes are applicable to distinct armed actors (belligerents/peacekeepers/external armed forces/private security companies) but in all cases respect for the principle of distinction is central. In general, special protection for relief actions and actors remains connected to respect for the principles of humanitarian assistance. This has been confirmed by belligerents’ reactions to the increased engagement of humanitarian organisations in protection, as the second essential component of humanitarian action: belligerents have claimed their entitlement to require respect by humanitarian personnel also for the most contested principle—neutrality, meaning non-interference in hostilities and even abstention from involvement in politics.

La tesi, articolata in sei capitoli, mira alla valutazione del grado di integrazione dei Rom cittadini europei negli Stati membri, in seguito all'attuazione di una serie di politiche, misure e mobilizzazione di risorse finanziarie, da parte dell’Unione europea, in materia di antidiscriminazione etnico-razziale, inclusione sociale e protezione delle minoranze. Il primo capitolo offre una panoramica sulla presenza dei Rom nell'Europa e una serie di spunti introduttivi al tema della loro integrazione. Il secondo capitolo mette in evidenza, oltre all'inquadramento giuridico del concetto di minoranza, alcune considerazioni sui limiti e sulle ambiguità del riconoscimento giuridico dei Rom in quanto minoranza europea, alla luce di numerosi strumenti normativi di diritto internazionale ed europei. Il terzo capitolo valuta il quadro antidiscriminatorio dell’Unione europea, con particolare attenzione alla Direttiva 2000/43/CE, e le politiche, i programmi e gli strumenti finanziari europei per contrastare la discriminazione dei Rom, basata sulla razza e sull'origine etnica. Il quarto capitolo analizza il ruolo delle politiche europee per l’integrazione dei Rom in quattro settori cardine, quali l’istruzione, l’occupazione, l’alloggio e la sanità. Il quinto capitolo affronta il problema di verificare se la reinterpretazione del tema delle minoranze sotto il profilo della diversità culturale, rappresenti un trend utile all'integrazione dei Rom o almeno porti i miglioramenti sperati in materia di accesso ad una abitazione adeguata, l'accesso all'istruzione, alla possibilità di inserirsi nel mondo di lavoro. Il sesto capitolo, da ultimo, attua una comparazione tra il sistema italiano e quello rumeno, per quanto riguarda il modo di affrontare la questione Rom, di rispondere all'appello europeo di elaborare una Strategia nazionale per la loro inclusione, del modo in cui fanno uso degli strumenti giuridici europei nello sviluppo e nell'attuazione delle politiche effettive, finalizzate all'integrazione dei Rom. / The thesis, divided into six chapters, aims to assess the integration’s level of the EU's Roma citizens in the Member States, afterwards the implementation of a series of European policies, measures and mobilization of financial resources on anti-ethnic racial discrimination, social inclusion and protection of minorities.

The permanent system of international criminal justice created through the Rome Statute envisages a wide margin of discretion for prosecutorial action, under the constraint of various forms of judicial supervision. Nevertheless, legal texts provide only very limited guidance to the Office of the Prosecution and judges as to the concrete exercise of these powers and responsibilities. For this reason, prosecutorial and judicial dynamic practice plays a fundamental creative role in integrating—and sometimes transforming—the ICC static legal framework. The present research has aimed at analysing the patterns of prosecutorial and judicial practice at the pre-trial stage of the proceedings of the ICC, with a view to comparing the law in the books and the law in action in this area of crucial importance for the legitimacy of the Court. The hypothesis that in this field there are areas of interpretive agreement (smooth relationship) and disagreement (open clash) between the relevant actors, as well as a certain degree of dissociation between the textual formant and the prosecutorial/judicial formant has been tested against the relevant practice. These empirical phenomena have then been assessed as to their possible institutional causes and (potentially detrimental) consequences, with a view to proposing institutional, procedural, administrative and legislative adjustments that may help fostering the predictability and consistency of the system. The conclusion is that practice in this field is a fundamental test-bench for the institutional functioning of the ICC, and that it is still in the process of establishing— by means of the interplay between the OTP and judges—a satisfactory balance among the conflicting needs of flexibility and predictability; one that only pragmatic interpretive compromises can bring about in the future.

Complementarity, the mechanism that regulates the exercise of the concurrent jurisdiction between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and national courts, constitutes one of the key features of the ICC, if not the cardinal one. As such, it keeps attracting the attention of both scholars and practitioners. In addition to the studies related to the interpretation of the statutory provisions - which leave numerous unanswered questions - complementarity has been object of growing attention in relation to its catalyst effects in fostering States' compliance with their duty to prosecute. The first years of activities of the Court have shown the exceptional character of judicial assessments of complementarity; meanwhile, the relevance of prosecutorial assessments of admissibility has emerged. In this context, the complementary nature of the Court, and its relevance in terms of prosecutorial assessments of admissibility, became evident. Starting from the idea that the Court shall encourage the performance of proceedings at the national level, complementarity has been progressively seen as a tool to strengthen domestic jurisdictions, under the concept of “positive†or “proactive†complementarity. This work explores the multifaceted aspects, meanings and functions assigned to complementarity. While acknowledging that complementarity operates in two dimensions - a strict legal one, related to judicial assessments of admissibility - and a broader one, which attains to the ICC prosecutor's consideration of complementarity when selecting the situations and cases to be brought before the Court, this thesis questions whether complementarity can be associated to capacity building functions, and, more generally, to a Court's direct role in overcoming states' inability and unwillingness to prosecute. Based on a throughout analysis of the legal framework, the drafting history and the ICC practice, this thesis suggests that complementarity is a concrete notion, i.e., the mechanism that regulates the exercise of concurrent jurisdiction between the Court and States. Compared to other mechanisms for the allocation of concurrent jurisdiction, such as primacy, it undoubtedly retains a component that fosters dialogue between the Court and states. However, all initiatives aimed at strengthening states' ability and willingness to investigate and prosecute, undertaken directly by organs of the Court or by other, external actors, do not directly depend on alleged effects of complementarity. It is the very existence of the Court, and the commitment to end impunity for the perpetrators of international crimes of all components of the system of justice created through its establishment, that fosters all these, welcomed, initiatives.

The present analysis deals with the question of whether and to what extent mental attitudes that, at the level of cognition, do not attain the factual threshold of awareness of the criminal outcome as a practical certainty can lead to the establishment of criminal responsibility for the so-called core crimes, i.e. genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.The answer to this issue depends on whether and how far a given system of criminal law views the mental element applicable to the offences in question as encompassing forms of risk-taking. Seeking to comprehensively investigate the current legal situation, the present study examines the types of mental element applicable under two domestic legislations on core crimes, namely the German Völkerstrafgesetzbuch and the U.S. Federal Criminal Code, on the one hand, and in customary international law and under the ICC Statute, on the other hand. The survey turns then to whether in any of the legal systems at stake a standard of mental element has been consolidated such that it would be generally applicable unless otherwise provided. It also explores the extent to which mental attitudes departing from the threshold of awareness of the criminal outcome as a practical certainty may establish criminal responsibility for specific crimes and modes of liability. The rules thereby identified are applied to model cases describing various situations where an individual accomplishes an act of relevance to the criminal law but does not clearly perceive the consequence that will ensue from her behaviour.From the present study it emerges that there appear to exist more divergences than commonalities in the current legal landscape, regarding whether and to what extent the sphere of criminal responsibility for core crimes may be linked to attitudes of risk-taking. This outcome seems to derive first and foremost from the differing definitions of intent as they have developed in the regulatory frameworks analysed in this work. The conscious adoption of a behaviour that might lead to the realisation of an offence that is not aimed at, can under certain conditions be covered by the notion of intent found in German criminal law and in the jurisprudence of the ICTY and ICTR applying customary international law. On the other hand, it is excluded from the definition of the intent in U.S. federal criminal law and in the ICC Statute. Furthermore, in all the legal systems considered in the present study, there exist significant exceptions to the application of intent, both widening and narrowing the scope of criminal responsibility. Considering that in a decentralized system of international justice the intervention of the ICC should be an extrema ratio, the present analysis suggests establishing a regulation to be applied by the International Criminal Court on the mental element, which reflects the gravity of cases this tribunal is called upon to adjudicate. At the same time lesser degrees of mens rea would remain applicable under national laws on core crimes.

La tesi è dedicata ai profili di diritto internazionale privato del danno da prodotto, con particolare riguardo agli sviluppi normativi che hanno interessato i Paesi membri dell’Unione europea. Nella prima parte della trattazione vengono analizzate le vicende più significative connesse alla nascita della fattispecie sia da un punto di vista sostanziale che internazionalprivatistico. In tale ambito, viene riservata peculiare attenzione all’esperienza degli stati Uniti (Cap. 1), che come noto hanno rappresentato la culla della responsabilità del produttore, e viene esaminata la Convenzione dell’Aja del 2 ottobre 1973 (Cap. 2), prima disciplina speciale della materia sul piano del diritto internazionale privato. La seconda parte dell’elaborato si concentra invece sugli interventi legislativi predisposti a livello comunitario (direttiva 85/374/CEE, come modificata dalla direttiva 1999/34/CE, e regolamento 864/2007/CE) al fine di ricostruire i rapporti intercorrenti tra le diverse fonti (nazionali, comunitarie e internazionali) che oggi concorrono a disciplinare la questione della legge applicabile alla responsabilità da prodotto negli Stati membri dell’Unione europea (Cap. 3). / The thesis examines the conflict of laws aspects of product liability, with particular regard to recent developments of EU Member States’ legislation. Product liability law as a distinct body of law – at least partially independent from general tort law – is a relatively new phenomenon. It arose during the 1960s in the Unites States of America. In that period US courts and scholars started to deal with choice-of-law issues in product liability cases. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the most significant events relating to product liability history, from both a domestic and international point of view. The need for a special conflicts rule – pointed out first by the US commentator Albert Ehrenzweig – led to the adoption of the 1973 Hague Convention on the law applicable to product liability, the first regulation of the topic in private international law, which is analysed in Chapter 2. Finally, Chapter 3 examines European Community legislative interventions in the field of product liability (Council Directive 85/374/EEC, amended by Directive 1999/34/EC, and Regulation 864/2007/EC) with the aim of assessing the present state of the law in EU Member States. Different sources are currently competing to regulate the issue of the law applicable to product liability in the EU context and this chapter analyses the relationships between them.

Dopo aver delineato nel primo capitolo i necessari fondamenti teorici della disciplina relativa all’acquisto della sovranità e dunque della personalità giuridica internazionale anche nel caso di entità territoriali non statuali, è presentata una descrizione delle caratteristiche principali dell’amministrazione internazionale della Bosnia Erzegovina (capitolo 2) e del Kosovo (capitolo 3). Per fornire un quadro il più possibile chiaro, si rende anzitutto necessario indagare l’applicabilità della nozione di Stato a ciascuna delle due entità territoriali prese in esame le quali, sebbene sotto profili istituzionali differenti, sono state parte della Federazione delle Repubbliche socialiste iugoslave. Se per la Bosnia Erzegovina prassi e dottrina si sono dimostrate concordi nel riconoscere lo status di Stato indipendente, nel caso del Kosovo tale sintonia di posizioni non è ad oggi riscontrabile a causa del peculiare e incompiuto percorso di acquisizione della personalità giuridica internazionale. / Legal scholars have increasingly considered the phenomenon of international territorial administrations as a governance device which challenges some of the fundamental patterns of international law. Indeed, international territorial administrations have created normative problems by shaping both concepts of State and sovereignty. In several cases international administrators have exercised full legislative and executive authority in the administered territories, placing them in the role of governmental institutions of a State. This is the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo which have been ruled international administrations vested with the power to adopt acts with direct effect on the legal order of those territories. After briefly examining previous experiments in internationalized territories, this thesis applies this category to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and describes how sovereignty was dealt with by international actors.

La tesi si articola in 4 capitoli. Il primo descrive i fondamenti dell’universalità della giurisdizione e ripercorre il processo di emersione del criterio da un punto di vista storico, ne individua l’ambito di applicazione ratione materiae, ed esamina le principali teorie a supporto e fondamento del ricorso a questo criterio.Il secondo capitolo ricostruisce, al termine di una ricognizione della prassi, i più delicati problemi applicativi del criterio, che nel corso degli anni ’90 ne hanno determinato il parziale abbandono. Individua, infatti, alcuni istituti che possono rendere più difficoltoso il ricorso al criterio universale, quali le immunità dalla giurisdizione di alcune figure statali e i provvedimenti di amnistia. Infine, mostra che anche il mancato o insufficiente adattamento degli ordinamenti nazionali all’ordinamento internazionale può risultare problematico.Il terzo capitolo descrive la rivitalizzazione del criterio alla quale si assiste da almeno 10 anni e individua i fattori principali di tale fenomeno nell’adozione dello Statuto di Roma che istituisce la Corte Penale Internazionale (CPI) e nella conseguente adozione delle legislazioni nazionali attuative dello Statuto, nonché nel susseguirsi di proposte accademiche e intergovernative circa la regolazione dell’impiego del criterio universale.Il quarto e ultimo capitolo tenta di individuare lo “stato dell’arte” del criterio e cioè di chiarirne la natura e la portata, soprattutto alla luce della prassi dei giudici nazionali esaminata nei capitoli precedenti. Il capitolo si interroga circa la natura permissiva o obbligatoria della giurisdizione universale, circa la sua matrice, consuetudinaria oppure convenzionale, e sulla possibilità che l’esercizio della giurisdizione universale possa essere subordinato al rispetto di alcuni requisiti. Si indaga altresì il rapporto tra la giurisdizione universale e l’obbligo “aut dedere aut iudicare” contenuto in numerosi trattati internazionali in materia di repressione dei crimini internazionali e transnazionali / The thesis aims at enquiring the current status of universal criminal jurisdiction. Therefore, it examines conventional and customary international law to figure out the scope and application of this principle of jurisdiction.

Univ., Diss--Neuchâtel.

Univ., Diss--Neuchâtel.