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“Gender Quotas” in French and Italian Public Law: A Tale of Two Overlapping and Then Diverging Trajectories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Mathias Möschel

Abstract

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This Article compares the French and Italian experiences with gender quotas—understood as mechanisms intended to increase women's participation in public life, including but not limited to, the reservation of seats in certain positions and the modulation of electoral lists— in public entities such as legislative and executive bodies (including political parties), the judiciary, and public universities. The comparison between France and Italy demonstrates that even between two countries whose constitutional history and trajectory with regard to gender quotas has been portrayed as being essentially identical, a closer analysis of the recent developments in both countries’ constitutional and administrative case law shows a slightly more nuanced picture. Using Rodolfo Sacco's approach of legal formants, this Article argues that the difference stems mainly from the different attitude and interpretation of equality by the judicial formant.

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Articles
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 6 , November 2018 , pp. 1489 - 1518
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 For more on this topic of legal literature in the United States or literature in English language comparing gender quotas in the United States and abroad, see Anne Peters, Women, Quotas and Constitutions: A Comparative Study of Affirmative Action for Women Under American, German, European Community and International Law (1999); Darren Rosenblum, Parity/Disparity: Electoral Gender Inequality on the Tightrope of Liberal Constitutional Traditions, 39 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1119 (2006); Darren Rosenblum, Feminizing Capital: A Corporate Imperative, 6 Berkeley Bus. L.J. 55 (2009); Julie C. Suk, Gender Parity and State Legitimacy: From Public Office to Corporate Boards, 10 Int'l J. Const. L. 449 (2012); Nadia Urbinati, Why Parité is a Better Goal Than Quotas, 10 Int'l J. Const. L. 465 (2012); Véronique Magnier & Darren Rosenblum, Quotas and the Transatlantic Divergence of Corporate Governance, 34 Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 249 (2014).Google Scholar

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82 Corte Cost., Jan. 25, 2017, no. 35.Google Scholar

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88 Id. at para. 3.2.Google Scholar

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101 Trib. ammin. reg. Lombardia, Milano, sez. I, Feb. 4, 2011, no. 354.Google Scholar

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106 Trib. ammin. reg. Campania, Napoli, sez. I, Apr. 7, 2011, no. 1985.Google Scholar

107 Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Lecce, sez. I, Feb. 24, 2010, no. 622.Google Scholar

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111 Mainly Corte Cost. art. 24 (the right of everyone to bring cases before a court of law in order to protect their rights under civil and administrative law) and Corte Cost. art. 113 (guaranteeing the right of judicial protection against acts by the public administration).Google Scholar

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115 Art. 51, para. 4.3 Constituzione [Cost.] (It.).Google Scholar

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117 This is partly what is indicated in a Circular by the Interior Ministry, dated Apr. 24, 2014, at point 3.Google Scholar

118 Trib. ammin. reg. Marche, sentenza 2012, no. 81. It should be indicated here, that for certain smaller municipalities there is the faculty but not the obligation to name members outside of the municipal council (i.e. the municipal legislative organ) to become part of the local executive.Google Scholar

119 See, e.g., Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Lecce, sez. I, ordinanza Oct. 21, 2009, no. 792; Trib. ammin. reg. Calabria, Catanzaro, sez. II, Jan. 9, 2015, no. 1.Google Scholar

120 Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, sez. III, July 6, 2005, no. 680.Google Scholar

121 I explicitly do not add “her actions” here because in all the cases read and analyzed it was male mayors/presidents whose actions were under scrutiny and not female ones.Google Scholar

122 See Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Lecce, sez. I, Oct. 10, 2009, no. 792.Google Scholar

123 Supra note 105.Google Scholar

124 Trib. ammin. reg. Calabria, Catanzaro, sez. II, Jan. 9, 2015, no. 1. On that same day the same administrative court decided practically identical facts (no women or one woman nominated by the mayors) for three other small towns—Torano Castello, Vaccarizzo Albanese, Rombiolo—with the same outcome in Trib. ammin. reg. Calabria, Catanzaro, sez. II, Jan. 9, 2015, nos. 2–4.Google Scholar

125 Cons. stato, sez. V, Feb. 3, 2016, no. 406.Google Scholar

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128 Law Dec. 19, 1984, no. 863, art. 4, para. 4, G.U., Dec. 22, 1984, no. 351.Google Scholar

129 Law Apr. 10, 1991, no. 125, G.U., Apr. 15, 1991, no. 88 (establishing affirmative action measures for equality between men and women at work), and the amendments made by the Legislative Decree May 23, 2000, no. 196, G.U., July 18, 2000, no. 166.Google Scholar

130 Legislative Decree Apr. 11, 2006, no. 198, G.U., May 31, 2006, Ord. Supp. no. 133, which is better known as the Testo Unico delle pari opportunità. Google Scholar

131 See the four Calabrian cases already mentioned above, supra note 108, but also Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Bari, sez. I, Jan. 11, 2012, no. 79.Google Scholar

132 For more detail on these institutions, see Catelani, supra note 75, at 217–56.Google Scholar

133 See, e.g., Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Bari, sez. I, Jan. 11, 2012, no. 79; Trib. ammin. reg. Piemonte, Jan. 13, 2013, no. 24.Google Scholar

134 See, e.g., Trib. ammin. reg. Sardegna, sez. II, Aug. 2, 2011, no. 864 and Trib. ammin. reg. Sicilia, Palermo, sez. I, July 19, 2010, no. 8690.Google Scholar

135 See, e.g., Trib. ammin. reg. Puglia, Lecce., sez. I, June 6, 2005, no. 680; Trib. ammin. reg. Sicilia, sez. I, Dec. 15, 2010, no. 14310; Trib. ammin. reg. Lazio, supra note 105; and Trib. ammin. reg. Lazio, sez. II, Jan. 20, 2012, no. 679.Google Scholar

136 See Trib. ammin. reg. Sardegna, sez. II, June 27, 2011, no. 664.Google Scholar

137 As was the case in Rome in the decision cited supra note 105.Google Scholar

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139 See, e.g., Trib. ammin. reg. Campania, Napoli, sez. I, June 7, 2010, no. 12668; Trib. ammin. reg. Campania, Napoli, Apr. 7, 2011, no. 1985; Cons. stato, sez. V, July 27, 2011, no. 4502 (upholding the Trib. ammin. reg. Napoli judgment no. 1985/2011).Google Scholar

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141 Sophie Boyron, The Constitution of France 29–94 (2013).Google Scholar

142 See Decree Abolishing the Feudal System, Aug. 11, 1789, published in John L. Heinemann, Readings in European History: 1789 To the Present 9–10 (2d ed., 1994).Google Scholar

143 That this might be in itself some form of constitutional gender stereotyping has been discussed elsewhere, see Mathias Möschel, La tutela giuridica contro gli stereotipi di genere [The legal protection against gender stereotypes], XXXIII Rivista critica del diritto privato 443, 461–62 (2015).Google Scholar