Sara Pennicino is Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe, and Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law at the University of Padua. Pennicino completed her PhD in Comparative Public Law (2008) at the University of Siena and was then awarded a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Bologna's School of Law. In the meantime, she became a member of the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development (CCSDD), where to date she holds the position of Senior Affiliated Scholar.
Professor Pennicino's research areas include electoral management in transitional and post conflict countries, systems of electoral justice, constitutional ban on political parties and constitutional eternity clauses. Sara works with the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU) training Italian and third country members of security forces with specific regard to human rights and policing, security and elections-related violence and humanitarian law.
Pennicino has written numerous articles published in Italian and international law reviews regarding constitutional adjudication in common law systems and elections.
This is a survey course on international human rights (law) and existing mechanisms to promote and protect them, with particular focus on the more developed European norms and their interpretation in the extensive jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It deals with the history and philosophy of human rights and their place within the global legal and political system. Using case studies and practical examples, it clarifies the meaning of selected individual and collective human rights. It introduces into the methods and principles of the practical application of human rights. It also deals with the interaction between international/regional and national implementation of such rights.