Introduction to IT law

Norms and rules

UENorm: Refers to something normal.

Rule: (Latin Regula), recalls that something is regular. A rule is a statement that governs human conduct, and its direct conduct. It may stipulate that particular conduct is compulsory (imposing a duty to act), prohibited (forbidding it), or lawful (permitting it).

Different types of rules

• Personal: Regulate the conduct of a specific person.
• Factual: Convert one or more factually specified situations.
• General: Direct whoever may find themselves in a specific situation.
• Abstract: Covers any situation that repeats the one envisioned.

Law encompasses the different types of rules:

• Personal and factual: When a sentence directs a debtor to pay his creditor.
• General and factual: Rule for a specific situation (e.g., shovel the snow off the sidewalk in front of my house if it snows too much).

Usually, rules contained in codes, statutes, decrees, and regulations are both general and abstract.

Sanction distinction

• Civil sanction: Compensation for damage.
• Criminal sanction: Imprisonment.
• Administrative sanctions: Pay cash to the state.

Legal rules

People have to decide whether to adopt rules. You can ignore moral rules, local customs, rules governing particular professions, rules of courtesy, and many others. Necessary criteria through which legal rules can be recognized include:

• Legal rules, if violated, would be sanctioned by the use of force or law.
• Judicial precedents tend to prevail, as continuity and the coherence of court rulings give credibility to the judicial function.

Source of law

Any act or fact from which the law originates or can be obtained in a given system.

• Written source: Rules laid down in written text.
• Unwritten source: Laws inferred from a diversity of contexts (e.g., customs).

Legal sources include cases of law legislation (Judges decide to create precedents, which may become a criterion for resolving similar cases). Legislation is the process through which an authority draws up a text containing legal rules (acts or statutory instruments). The legislation has become more important than case law with an increasingly major role for relying on codes of rules.

Article 70 of the Italian Constitution: Two houses of parliament (chamber of deputies and the senate of the republic) have legislative power. Matter principle: Rules have to be legitimated by a higher rule, within the legal system (made by historical events).

EU evolution

EEC → EC → EU

End of WW2: ERP (European Recovery Program) and OEEC (Organization for European Cooperation) are the first examples of European cooperation (1948).

NATO and the Council of Europe

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty - Washington 4/4/1949. An intergovernmental military alliance with a system of collective defense in response to an external attack (Article 4). Initial number: 12, current number: 30.

Council of Europe: Strasbourg, Treaty of London - 5/5/1949. Initial 10 states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK (Turkey and Greece joined 3 months later). It is an international organization promoting human rights, democracy, and European law. Currently, it includes 47 states with a population of 820 million. It focuses on political, social, and cultural cooperation. The most famous achievement is the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom (ECHR 1950). The European Court of Human Rights was created to supervise member states and bring cases if there is a violation of ECHR principles by a state.

Article 8 cases (Marper and S. and Marper v. UK) concern the right to respect for private and family life. 1. Everyone has the right to respect his private and family life, his home, and his correspondence. 2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except in accordance with the law and as necessary for a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety, or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

COMECON and the Warsaw Pact

COMECON (Council of Mutual Economic Assistance) 1949-1991, was the Soviet Union and communist states' reply to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) during the Cold War.

Warsaw Pact 14/05/1955 was a mutual assistance agreement between the communist states of Eastern Europe, a Soviet response to NATO.

ECSC and Rome Treaties

ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) - 1951. In 1949, Ruhr and Saar were planned to be returned to the Federal Republic. The French feared the impact on Europe, leading to the Shuman Plan (French Finance Minister). Six states: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany. A common market for coal and steel was established, governed by a high authority (an independent body composed of international civil servants) to determine conditions of production and prices. The high authority was supervised by the Council (Member State representatives), and a Court of Justice was instituted for interpreting EU Law.

Treaties of Rome - March 1957, entered into force on 1/1/1958. These treaties created:

• EEC (European Economic Community)
• Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community)

The objective of the EEC was to transform trade and manufacturing conditions in the community and to construct a political Europe for unification. Article 2 states the goal of a common market, harmonious development of economic activities, continuous and balanced expansion, and stability in relations between member states. Article 3 sets freedoms for the market, goals the states have to achieve for the European Union, establishes the European Social Fund and the European Investment Bank, and sets new policies to favor a free market.

Four fundamental freedoms and enlargements

Four fundamental freedoms: Persons, services, goods, and capital in a common market based on the principle of free competition. Certain policies are formally protected in the Treaty, such as:

• Common agricultural policy
• Common trade policy
• Transport policy
• Various modifications and integration of ECT over time

Enlargements:

• Treaty of Accession of the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland (1972), increasing the Member States of the European Economic Community from 6 to 9 (by 1973).
• Treaty of Accession of Greece (1979).
• Treaty of Accession of Spain and Portugal (1985), increasing the number of Member States from 10 to 12.
• 1991: Treaty of Accession of Austria, Finland, and Sweden (1994), increasing the number of Member States to 15.
• Treaty of Accession of Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004), increasing the number of Member States from 15 to 25.
• Treaty of Accession of Bulgaria and Romania (2005), increasing the Member States from 25 to 27.
• Croatia became a Member State by 2013.
• 2016: Brexit referendum. The transitional period started on January 31, 2020, and ended on December 31, 2020. The Withdrawal Agreement set out the terms of the UK’s departure.