La Conferenza sul futuro dell’Europa e le prospettive di una più attiva partecipazione dei cittadini europei

The Conference on the Future of Europe, inaugurated in occasion with the Day of the European Union (May 9th, 2021), remarks the new deal of European institutions and opens to a future of participative democracy, in which the impetus of initiative would be in the hands of European peoples, without any discrimination and any difference. The contribution aims to describe the future perspectives of the EU: From a common platform of participation to the construction of a “positive” model of democracy in order to renew the institutions of the Union.The Conference on the Future of Europe, inaugurated in occasion with the Day of the European Union (May 9th, 2021), remarks the new deal of European institutions and opens to a future of participative democracy, in which the impetus of initiative would be in the hands of European peoples, without any discrimination and any difference. The contribution aims to describe the future perspectives of the EU: From a common platform of participation to the construction of a “positive” model of democracy in order to renew the institutions of the Union

La Natura come soggetto di diritto nell’ordinamento dell’Uganda

On 24 February 2019, the Parliament of Uganda approved the National Environment Act to provide for a correct management of the environment and natural resources. The Act was adopted in order to enhance the protection of the environment, address a strategic assessment in implementing environmental rights and sustainable development, and increase penalties for offences against nature. The relevance of this Act stands in the radical change of the legal consideration of the environment and nature. Indeed, the Ugandan legislation appears to alter the classical parameter of environmental law in considering Nature a subject entitled to its own rights with the possibility of recurring before the Courts in case of danger and/or violations. This reform marks a shift from an anthropocentric vision of the environment towards a more geocentric construction of environmental law.On 24 February 2019, the Parliament of Uganda approved the National Environment Act to provide for a correct management of the environment and natural resources. The Act was adopted in order to enhance the protection of the environment, address a strategic assessment in implementing environmental rights and sustainable development, and increase penalties for offences against nature. The relevance of this Act stands in the radical change of the legal consideration of the environment and nature. Indeed, the Ugandan legislation appears to alter the classical parameter of environmental law in considering Nature a subject entitled to its own rights with the possibility of recurring before the Courts in case of danger and/or violations. This reform marks a shift from an anthropocentric vision of the environment towards a more geocentric construction of environmental law

La pericolosa interpretazione contra constitutionem della giurisprudenza boliviana sui mandati presidenziali

There has always been a confusion according to the Bolivian legal doctrine about the real duration of the Presidential office and the possibility of a sine tempore re-election. In April 2013 and in November 2017, the Bolivian Tribunal Constitucional Plurinacional (TCP) struck down any limit on Presidential re-election, in order to preserve the fundamental  right to vote, according to the system of the Interamerican Convention of human rights. In December 2018, even the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) admitted the re-elegibility of President Morales, being able him to run for the primaries on January 2019. It possibly clears the way to a dangerous contra constitutionem interpretation in contrast with political and democratic stability in the State

Costituzionalismo differenziale e identità indigene

The book aims to reconstruct, with a interdisciplinary approach in a comparative methodology, the evolution of Bolivian institutions, from independence to the present days, in the light of the indigenous element as a legal interpretative parameter. After a first denial and a forced assimilation, the indigenous element was integrated into the institutions until it became central to the construction of an alternative constitutionalism to the Western model. The dissertation outlines three Latin American constitutional cycles. For each constitutional cycle, the common lines and the differences with Western constitutionalism are analysed, referring to the importance attributed to the indigenous element, since to a detailed analysis of intercultural and multinational constitutionalism of the 2009 Bolivian constitution. The indigenous element is fundamental because it becomes a source of national law, thus giving rise to a plural juridical model that starts from the community, and the traditional and ancestral culture of the indigenous people. It also challenges the Western individual constitutionalism, only founded on the supremacy of human rights.PublishedLa monografia si propone di ricostruire, con un taglio interdisciplinare nella metodologia comparata, l’evoluzione delle istituzioni boliviane, a partire dall’indipendenza fino ai giorni nostri, alla luce dell’elemento indigeno come parametro interpretativo-normativo. Dopo una prima negazione e un’assimilazione forzata, l’elemento indigeno è stato integrato nelle istituzioni fino a diventare centrale per la costruzione di un costituzionalismo alternativo al modello occidentale. La trattazione delinea tre cicli costituzionali latino-americani. Per ogni ciclo costituzionale, sono analizzate le linee comuni ai diversi Stati e le differenze con il costituzionalismo occidentale, in riferimento all’importanza attribuita all’elemento indigeno, fino ad un’analisi dettagliata del costituzionalismo interculturale e multinazionale della carta boliviana del 2009. In essa, l’elemento indigeno è fondamentale perché diventa fonte stessa del diritto nazionale, facendo sorgere, così, un modello giuridico plurale che parte dalla comunità, dalla tradizione e dalla cultura ancestrale degli indigeni e contesta il costituzionalismo individuale di matrice occidentale, fondato unicamente sulla supremazia dei diritti umani

L’emergenza COVID-19 in Brasile e l’atteggiamento negazionista di Bolsonaro: Global efforts to stop COVID-19 pandemic

As the international crisis due to the COVID-19 emergence, the President of Brasil denies risks of a pandemic flu and opens to negationists’ propaganda on the effects of the virus. His policy substantially differs from the extraordinary measures commonly adopted, at an international level, in order to contain the epidemic, and it may lead to a general context of inner crisis in the political and legal asset of the Federation. In fact, Brasil is characterized by a peculiar scenario, where Federal Government, Parliament and President don’t always agree and national institutions are often in contrast with the States. Indeed, conflicts between Government and Courts are ongoing for a normative plan to contain the epidemic.As the international crisis due to the COVID-19 emergence, the President of Brasil denies risks of a pandemic flu and opens to negationists’ propaganda on the effects of the virus. His policy substantially differs from the extraordinary measures commonly adopted, at an international level, in order to contain the epidemic, and it may lead to a general context of inner crisis in the political and legal asset of the Federation. In fact, Brasil is characterized by a peculiar scenario, where Federal Government, Parliament and President don’t always agree and national institutions are often in contrast with the States. Indeed, conflicts between Government and Courts are ongoing for a normative plan to contain the epidemic

Declinazioni innovative della democrazia partecipativa e integrazione dei gruppi deboli. Riflessioni comparate e conclusive

Re-thinking about Innovative Perspectives in Participatory Democracy, and in the Integration of Vulnerable Groups: Comparative and Conclusive Remains ‒ Even if providing a unique meaning to qualify ‘participatory democracy’ is quite difficult, the term is doubtlessly connected to a series of instruments in order to reduce the distance between citizenship and institutions. Particularly, participatory instruments are intended to enlarge the democratic parameter by following two guidelines: the one of the digital participations as integrating vulnerable groups, and the one of the citizens’ assemblies as protecting environment

Searching for stochastic gravitational waves using data from the two colocated LIGO Hanford detectors

Searches for a stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) using terrestrial detectors typically involve cross-correlating data from pairs of detectors. The sensitivity of such cross-correlation analyses depends, among other things, on the separation between the two detectors: the smaller the separation, the better the sensitivity. Hence, a colocated detector pair is more sensitive to a gravitational-wave background than a noncolocated detector pair. However, colocated detectors are also expected to suffer from correlated noise from instrumental and environmental effects that could contaminate the measurement of the background. Hence, methods to identify and mitigate the effects of correlated noise are necessary to achieve the potential increase in sensitivity of colocated detectors. Here we report on the first SGWB analysis using the two LIGO Hanford detectors and address the complications arising from correlated environmental noise. We apply correlated noise identification and mitigation techniques to data taken by the two LIGO Hanford detectors, H1 and H2, during LIGO’s fifth science run. At low frequencies, 40–460 Hz, we are unable to sufficiently mitigate the correlated noise to a level where we may confidently measure or bound the stochastic gravitational-wave signal. However, at high frequencies, 460–1000 Hz, these techniques are sufficient to set a 95% confidence level upper limit on the gravitational-wave energy density of Ω(f) < 7.7 × 10[superscript -4](f/900  Hz)[superscript 3], which improves on the previous upper limit by a factor of ~180. In doing so, we demonstrate techniques that will be useful for future searches using advanced detectors, where correlated noise (e.g., from global magnetic fields) may affect even widely separated detectors.National Science Foundation (U.S.)United States. National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationCarnegie TrustDavid & Lucile Packard FoundationAlfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level