Vocabulary!

New words from all the lessons:

• arrangements (accordi)

Today we're going to talk about the arrangements between the nations.

• intimidating (intimidatorio)

I looked at him with an intimidating air.

• to sway (oscillare)

That earthquake made all the buildings sway to and fro.

• to overthrow (rovesciare)

He tried to overthrow the government but he failed.

• to soak (mettere a bagno)

Soak the tablecloth in the bleach! It's dirty!

• to bind by (costringere)

Italian judges are bound by the written law. That's clear.

• custom (abitudine)

The custom is to bring a present when you're invited to someone's birthday.

• trial (processo)

Mario was acquitted after a long and complex trial.

• receipt (scontrino)

You have to ask for the receipt, if they don't give it to you.

• extenuating circumstance (attenuante)

Judges have to consider also extenuating circumstances during the trial.

• barristers (avvocati)

I'd like to be a barrister one day.

• to plead (dichiararsi)

The defendant pled not guilty but no one trusted him.

• to acquit or convict (assolvere o condannare)

The judge decided to acquit him because there weren't enough prooves against him.

• defendant (imputato)

The defendant went on trial.

• fine (multa)

Many crimes are punished with a fine.

• to perjury (spergiurare)

He perjuried in the trial but he was discovered.

Topic Six: Reflection

I think that studying English at university is very useful. From the first English lesson at Luiss I've set for myself a main goal -keeping in touch with the language and improving my vocabulary lesson by lesson. I think I've achieved these goals -making a blog has been very nice and useful for practice and studying European legal systems made me learn lots of new legal words. My vocabulary has improved, and also my pronunciation -we've studied English sounds and difficult words. The next goal I want to achieve is to improve my listening skills, so I could watch any English film I like -listening to different pronunciations and accents it's pretty important. I'd like to take a holiday in England as well, in order to improve my speaking skills (going abroad is surely the best way to learn a language!).

Presentation!

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my presentation. My name is Fabrizio Zolli.

The topic of my presentation today is 'the growing importance of the European Union as a law maker'.

The reason that this topic is useful for you is because it concerns all of us as Italian citizens and E.U. citizens as well.

We are going to talk about 3 things. These are, firstly, globalization and Italian Law, and secondly international organizations. Finally we're going to talk about the Italian situation.
Due to the limited time I have today, just 5 minutes, I'd appreciate it if you would keep your questions until the end. Thank you.

Firstly, globalization and Italian Law.

Nowadays we live in a global world, and globalization has influenced our legal system as well. That means that we can’t examine the constitutional law like we used to do fifty years ago, when the only law makers were the State and partially the regions. Today Italy is a member of E.U., and there are some international organizations that make law – the most important ones are O.N.U. and W.T.O. . When one of these organizations issues a directive, this must be respected by every single nation. .

That's the end of the first point. Now we will move on to the second point, which is about international organizations.

What is the main advantage of international organizations? Obviously supervision. The O.N.U. was born after the Second World War to guarantee international peace, and it has the same function still nowadays. The W.T.O. was born to supervise international trade in order to avoid rich countries growing richer and poor countries growing poorer. .

That's all for the second point.

Finally, the Italian situation.

Italy is getting used to this new context a bit slowly. That’s a problem. Constitutional law needs to be updated, but Italian people aren’t usually up-to-date… For example, some manuals still talk about ‘’the supremacy of the State’’, without taking into account the existence of international organizations. This is why having a good professor is very important!.

That's the end of the final point.

In conclusion, in this presentation my objective was to make you realize that Italian Law is changing because of the existence of international law makers.

I have covered 3 main points, firstly, globalization and Italian Law. Secondly we talked about international organizations. Finally we discussed the Italian situation.

I hope you have found this presentation useful. Thank you. Questions, please?

If there are no more questions, that is the end of my presentation. Thank you.