The chapters brought together in this volume build on the idea that in the 1970s-1980s the global language of human rights contributed to stimulating ideas of reform in the communist world. The protagonists were Mikhail Gorbachev and the Italian communists. The experience of the PCI was in many ways a peculiar case, but one that was linked to underground ideas of cultural change even in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's ascent signalled a fundamental shift, as he rejected the approach of reducing human rights to an ideological battleground and instead made it the centrepiece of a universalist relaunch. By exploring the encounter between reform communists and human rights, the authors reconstruct the metamorphosis and the end of communism within the context of the wider transformations taking place in European political cultures at the end of the Cold War.
In the present work the author studies how efforts at understanding the juridic relationship between the Apostolic See and the Eastern Catholic Churches over the past roughly five hundred years have led to the increased recognition of the juridic autonomy of those Churches. The work first focuses on the early jurisprudence concerning the binding force of papal legislation on Eastern faithful, highlighting an important though unapproved decision made by a particular congregation of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in 1631, which declared that the popes did not intend to bind the subjects of the sees of the schismatic patriarchs by certain types of apostolic constitutions except in three particular cases. The work then reviews the jurisprudence of Pope Benedict XIV, who cited this decision three times in his writings; the events of the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, particularly those surrounding the First Vatican Council when the preconciliar commission on the Churches of the Eastern rite sought to suppress the praxis based on this decision; the period of the first codification of canon law, when this decision was reaffirmed in praxis; and, finally, the Second Vatican Council and the second codification period, when this decision became the basis for canon 1492 of the Eastern code. This study emphasizes the impact that the jurisprudence surrounding the 1631 decision has had on how the understanding of Eastern juridic autonomy has developed in the Catholic Church. It also shows how the current canonical norms impacting Eastern autonomy can be better understood in light of this historical development.
Obiettivo principale del volume, redatto prevalentemente in lingua inglese, è l'analisi del concetto di nazionalismo in Canada all'inizio del nuovo millennio e delle conseguenze che gli ultimi sviluppi storici hanno avuto sulle rappresentazioni che dell'Europa e dell'Italia vengono offerte nelle più recenti opere letterarie.