Project 

The role of communication in the public sphere is not a new research topic for sciences other than EU Law.

Since the end of the 90s, political scientists have been questioning “regulation by communication”; economists have been addressing the role of Central Banks’ communication in the implementation of monetary policies, particularly in the recent period of financial attacks on sovereign bonds after the failure of Lehmann Brothers; sociologists are more and more often studying the role of mass media in communicating the EU, as well as the means which the EU communicates itself through; furthermore, the conditions conferring normative nature to a provision are deeply debated as a topic in classic legal theory.

Conversely, legal sciences have not systematically studied the value of EU communication yet. When these issues arose before EU Courts, the matter has either been solved applying the settled principle on the possibility to only challenge those acts that are formally able to produce legal effects (e.g., the Gauweiler case, with regard to the question on the validity of a press release) or dismissed thanks to the settled principles on the limitations of access to justice for individuals (von Storch) or on the non-reviewability of acts (allegedly) taken by the Member States (NF). In all cases, the system has decided not to adapt its settled traditions to the brave new world.

The studies on soft law, also at EU level, have approached in some ways these issues. However, their attention has been usually devoted to acts that have an ambiguous nature, being formally non-binding, yet de facto binding… but that indeed are, at least, acts. In the information society we currently live in, where the impact on individuals’ rights and obligations is more and more often created by bare communicative tools, this approach seems to deserve a step forward.

Against this backdrop, the aim of the Chair is to foster innovative and interdisciplinary studies focusing on the following issues:

• Mapping the phenomenon: the impact of public communication on public and private actors is already very well known and documented in fields such as monetary policy, banking, as well as in those fields covered by behavioral sciences.
  Yet, it is still relevant to set the scene and to map when, where and to what extent communication strategies are becoming de facto tools to steer behaviors of natural and legal persons, substituting legal acts;

• Theoretical questions: the studies carried out within the Chair's scope aim at investigating the current application of general legal theories and philosophies to the peculiar insitutional and normative setting of the EU;

• Institutional questions: awareness on behalf of EU institutions and Member States will be addressed. An unprecedented feature is the direct involvement of Press Officers and Social Media Managers, together with staff from the concerned Legal Services;

• Judicial protection: the project will tackle the issue of effective judicial protection whenever "regulation by communication" comes into play, evaluating whether current national and European judicial remedies prove to be sufficient and to what extent an evolution is necessary. 

To encourage discussion, the Chair will organise events such as conferences, seminars and roundtables where the issues at stake will be presented from diverse perspectives, thanks to the participation of both academic and professional figures. Moreover, young researchers will be invited to submit their contributions to the topic.