LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY DECISION MAKING

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

EB005

Academic Year of enrolment:

2021

Year of supply:

2021/2022

Type of Course:

Characterising

Degree:

Course of 2nd Cycle Degree in ECONOMICS AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Disciplinary Sector:

Administrative Law

Location:

PESCARA

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

CIVITARESE MATTEUCCI STEFANO

Cycle:

First semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

102

Prerequisites:

A basic knowledge of fundamental notions about public law and EU law is recommended. This in normally the case for students who have a degree in economics and alike, political sciences, etc.
A useful reading, anyway, is Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law, Edited by: Mark Tushnet , Thomas Fleiner , Cheryl Saunders, Routdlege, 2012, the first 12 chapters

Objectives

The widest goal of the course is to feed appropriate knowledge about principles and practice common to European legal orders on Administrative law and Public Policy Decision Making.
The course contribute to achieve the educational goals of the degree in Economics and Behavioural Sciences by providing the knowledge and skills of legal studies applied to such functions as: analysing and assessing governmental and international working group reports; stressing the behavioural aspects of an array of public policies; support policy-maker in deciding and implementing policies; assessing the impact of different policies and measures.
The course, in particular, aims at providing students with critical basic knowledge on how the law operates within the decision-making context of governmental policy and choice. Law, then, is not treated only as a source of legal power, to which from a legal point of view a decision should be however traced back, but as resource among others in a complex decisional environment.
After attending the course students will learn how to assess legal resources, legal reasoning and basic technicalities about decision-making processes in the broader context of political sciences and behavioural economics. Besides, they will be able to critically assess how a policy or administrative decision takes place by detecting their main legal and non-legal characters, players and tools.

Contents

The course deals with the general theory of decision-making regarding public policy and choice with a view on the so-called behavioural policymaking as well. In this context the law comes to the fore both in its mainly procedural and organisational fashion, typically embodied in the administrative law tradition, and in its function of laying down goals and objectives to pursue. The law of the European Union, as representative of the different traditions of the Member States’ public law, is used as the benchmark legal system.
To understand public policy decision-making the structure and outcomes of public policy will be studied by analysing the main decisional models: rational, rationally limited, and incremental.
With the aim of understanding to what extent the legal point of view is relevant and useful within a decisional environment, we will study who are the players, which are their objectives, and what are their political, economic, knowledge-based, and legal means.
Finally, we will focus on how a decision is made by analysing in more detail formal procedural rules and ways of interaction between the players involved.

Extended Syllabus

Module 1
Understanding policy decision from a political science point of view – Decisional Models
Who decides, Players and Resources
What is Decided? The Content of the Decision
How do we decide. The Patterns of Interaction
Where (and when) Do We Decide? The Context of the Decision
Strategies for Policy Entrepreneurs
Module 2
The Idea of European Union Administration—Its Nature and Development
• Interdisciplinary Foundations of European Administrative Law
• The Constitutional Framework of European Union Administrative Law
• Principles Underlying the Relationship Between the European Union and the Member States
• General Principles Framing European Union Administrative Law

• Module 3
• Organizational Arrangements for European Union Administrative Action
• Budget Implementation and Programme Management
• Administrative Procedures
• Rules and Principles Governing the Substance of Administrative Decision-Making
• Agenda Setting, Preparatory Acts, Planning, and Framework Measures
• Enforcement and Supervision of Administrative Action

Module 4
- Behavioural Law and Economics
o Decision-making
o Implementation
- Administrative law by Nudging
- Analysis of case studies

Recommended Bibliography

HERWIG C.H. HOFMANN, GERARD C. ROWE, ALEXANDER H. TURK, Administrative Law and Policy of the European Union, Oxford University Press, 2011.
Bruno Dente, Understanding Policy Decisions, Springer, 2014
Orly Lobel, A Behavioural Law and Economics Perspective Between Methodology and Ideology when Behavioural Sciences Meet Law, in Rob van Gestel, , Hans-W. Micklitz, Edward L. Rubin, Cambridge University Press, 2017;
Peter John, How Far to Nudge? Assessing Behavioural Public Policy, Elgar, 2018.
Other papers and documents will be made available online

Methods of Provision

Conventional

Teaching Methods

The teaching is articulated in 24 hours of lectures and 24 hours of tutorials based on readings and Q&C sessions on appropriately selected cases.
The e-learning platform (Moodle) will be used both for supplementing teaching material and tracking student progress.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The exam is written. It consists of a multiple-choice quiz and a short dissertation about the course’s topics. To pass, at least 9 points out of 30 for each one is needed.
The assessment of the dissertation regards the argumentative skills and the acquisition of an appropriate technical language.
The exam takes place on Moodle.
With attending students, way of partitioning the exam into different modules can be agreed.
Students can also request to substitute the written dissertation with an interview exam.

Contacts/More Information

E-mail: s.civitarese@unich.it
Office hours: Wednesday, 17:00
Website https://stefanocivitarese.site

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree