Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

The course aims to provide students with a broad, in-depth and critical perspective on the link between international economic law (trade and investments), national legal structures and the construction of a transnational food regime that produces almost 800 million undernourished people and more than 1 billion over-nourished and obese. Rather than being natural, the way in which food is produced, transported, allocated, consumed and discarded is strictly dependent on local and international legal structures. In addition, the current global food system has implications and produces consequences that go far beyond individual health and consumers' rights.

As the students will discover throughout the course, the act of eating, an operation which is often mechanically conducted and taken for granted (especially in some parts of the world, and by parts of society), is the final point of a complex system in which law interacts with economics, politics, culture, human rights, climate change and several other domains that are often overlooked in discussions about law and food.

At the end of the module, students will have enough instruments and knowledge to pursue future career trajectories in the food sector or, more simply, to be conscious and critical consumers.
All the mandatory readings will be distributed if not accessible via the University library system.

• Understand the legal complexity of the global food regime
• Evaluate the multiple socio-economic implications of the food we consume everyday
• Understand the role that legal instruments have in shaping the geography and mechanisms of production and in allocating resources and bargaining power throughout the food chain
• Learning about the actors and venues of global food governance
• Engage with some of the most pressing issues related to food production, transportation, consumption and recycling
• Identify the weaknesses of the current global food regime and apply the theoretical tools to a concrete case study
• Present a legal argument in public
• Draft a legal brief on the basis of an existing issue

Classes will be a combination of lecturing and seminars. Interactive moments and other forms of teaching may be experimented.

BLOG POSTS: Starting from class 2, students will be asked to present and comment blogs and therefore be actively involved.

STUDENTS ATTENDING CLASSES ARE REQUIRED TO DO ALL THE MANDATORY READINGS AND TO BE READY TO COMMENT THEM WITH THE TEACHER AND THE COLLEAGUES. This will account for participation (up to 30% of the final mark)

ASSESSMENT FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS (AT LEAST 80% OF PRESENCES)

To be considered 'attending', students shall participate to at least 80% of classes (lectures and seminars) and timely submit at least 80% of the short reactions.

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION: 30%

For attending students, participation and engagement account for 30% of the final mark and is assessed on the basis of the students' involvement, engagement, cooperation, etc. 

Participation will be assessed in each lecture and seminar (20 in total). Meaningful participation that makes reference to the material for the seminar and/or reveals engagement with the content of the course and/or with relevant issues will be given a maximum of 3 points per session. For a total maximum of 60. Detailed grid of conversion in the final mark will be shared in due course.

SEMINAR SHORT TASKS: 20%

Short tasks in preparation to each seminar: 20%. Tasks will be assessed with a mark
between 0 and 3. There will be 9 short-tasks for a total of 27 points for the short tasks.
Detailed grid of conversion in the final mark will be shared in due course.

BLOG POSTS: 30% 

One 1000 words max blog post on the topic that is discussed (on the basis of the lecture, the readings and personal interest). Sessions will be allocated on the first day of class. The blog and the reaction will receive a score between 1 and 5. 

Blogs have to be shared with the rest of the cohort before the midnight of the day before class. Each student preparing the blog post will have to identify a question for discussion with the rest of the class. Each student will be asked to assess the blog and the response too (peer-assessment). 

FINAL PODCAST: 20% 

Final 10 minutes podcast on the legal complexity of the food system (to be submitted 1
month after the end of the module). Podcasts have to be uploaded on the Google
Drive by 15th June 2023 at 23.59. Along with the podcast, please update also 1 page list
of references that you used to prepare your podcast (articles, books, videos, other
podcasts)

ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING: 100%

WRITTEN EXAM

90 minutes written exam. Students will have to answer 3 questions concerning the whole
syllabus (mandatory readings). Each answer will have to be between 1000 and 1200
words. Dates will be shared in due course.

Students will be assessed on their use of the material, their ability of critically connecting law and food and with their capacity of going beyond a descriptive approach to food and  law and presented a well-argued, organized and analytically solid argument.

This is a list of preliminary readings and documentaries. Students may want to scroll, skim through or watch some of the documentaries in order to get an overall sense of the complexity of the food system, the many challenges that characterize it and the main areas of legal interest. Each session has its own readings (mandatory and optional).

Olivier De Schutter, The Specter of Productivism and Food Democracy, Wisconsin Law Review (2014)

Nora McKeon, The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition: A Coup for Corporate Capital?, TNI Agrarian Justice Program

Nora McKeon, Global Governance for World Food Security: A Scorecard Four Years After the Eruption  of the 'Food Crisis', Heirich Boll Stiftung

Philip McMichael, A Food Regime Genealogy, The Journal of Peasant Studies (2009) 139-169

Henry Bernstein, Agrarian Political Economy and Modern World Capitalism: the Contributions of Food Regime Analysis, The Journal of Peasant Studies (2016) 611-647

Philip McMichael, Commentary: Food Regime for Thought, The Journal of Peasant Studies (2016) 648-670

Vandana Shiva, The Stolen Harvest of Seed

Raj Patel, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Melville House Publishing (2007)

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Houghton Mifflin Company (2001)

Nadia Lambek, Priscilla Claeys, Adrienna Wong and Lea Brilmayer (eds), Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law, Springer (2014)

Documentaries:

Fed Up, 2014, 

Immokalee Workers: a story of slavery and freedom

Food Inc.,