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STALS

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STALS (Sant'Anna Legal Studies) is a project made possible thanks to the financial support offered by Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, issued within the framework of the School's internationalisation policy.

Globalization has had a strong impact on political and legal studies. The connection between law, politics and the State was already stressed twenty years ago, when Norberto Bobbio wrote the entry "Law" for the ‘Dizionario della politica’.
We can say that a relevant portion of legal and political processes expands beyond the State dimension without completely denying the important role of the State. The rationale of multilevel governance and constitutionalism bases on the assumption of the complementarity between the different levels of governance and law. The scholarship (which represents one of the less positivistic formants of law) can enforce a very important mission against this background. Scholarly debate is monopolized by the English language and this does not facilitate the impact of Italian legal studies abroad; thus, we decided to develop a website which allows us to compare Italian and foreign legal studies.

STALS is neither a journal nor a mere paper archive. It is - above all - a ‘space’ where both young and experienced scholars can share a space and propose short papers, that are classified by topics (European politics and policies; Local law and devolution; New constitutional experiences; Judicial dialogue and transnational law; Welfare and markets; Global legal pluralism). The central purpose of the STALS portal is to foster discussion and research through the supply of easily-accessible working papers, and we trust that part of this discussion will enhance the interplay between Italian and foreign scholars in particular. All working papers submitted undergo a double blind peer-review process.

Between 1992 and 1994 Prof. Alessandro Pizzorusso edited a yearbook series on legal studies, called Italian Studies in Law (Martinus Nijhoff, publisher): we would like STALS to be the ideal continuation of that pioneering experiment, in a more up to date rendition.

It is not a coincidence, therefore, that we asked Prof. Alessandro Pizzorusso, former President of the Italian Association of Comparative law, to launch the STALS website with a paper of his: we understand this contribution as a sign of continuity with the Italian Studies in Law experience.

Other two distinguished scholars have agreed to contribute to the fist steps our project: Prof. Patrick Glenn, who has given us permission to publish a very interesting article which shall serve as the opener of the “Global legal pluralism” section, and Prof. Petros C. Mavroidis, who has been often invited to give his lectures at the School, and agreed to publish the transcript of one of these lectures.

STALS is an initiative of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna interested and active in the field of constitutional legal studies. Its aim, nevertheless, shall be that of giving young scholars from all around the world a concrete possibility of having their ideas published (by writing papers not only in English but also in French or Spanish) therefore we are glad to invite everyone to join our project.

Learn more on www.stals.santannapisa.it