Applied legal research, whose publication outcomes have led to the scientific work collected in this volume, stems from the synthesis between academic experience in the legal field and practical experience gained in courtrooms. In this context, the opportunity offered by the Uni4Justice project—promoted by the Ministry of Justice within the 2014–2020 PON Governance and Institutional Capacity program and carried out in synergy with the initiatives envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)—made it possible to pursue the project’s institutional goals, while also turning it into a tool for exploring some of the most significant legal issues which, in the private-law sphere, have a major impact on the judicial workload currently borne by the courts. At the same time, the work undertaken has become genuine teaching material, allowing students enrolled in the Comparative Private Law and European Union Private Law courses at the School of Law of the University of Padua to follow step by step the dynamics of the research’s development and to approach their studies not only from a traditional academic perspective, but also from the viewpoint of how doctrines and concepts are implemented in court practice. Thus, while the general theme of the research—connected to the protection of rights through judicial activity in its broadest sense—calls to mind traditional aspects and topics underlying the function and exercise of jurisdiction, the practical approach linked to the methods by which the research activity was carried out makes it possible to view the contributions collected in this volume—including those on Family Law, Succession Law, and the Law of Vulnerable Persons—as a qualified report of what is currently happening in courtrooms in these areas. The valuable cooperation between the University and the Courts (in particular the Tribunals of Padua, Treviso, and Rovigo) is once again an expression of Law in Action, which in the socio-legal sphere makes the educational and the applicative dimensions two distinct faces of the same coin: the justice system as a whole. The discussions on support administrators (amministratore di sostegno), which several contributions in this volume examine, highlight—among other things—the pressing need for the legal system to be able to adapt not only adequately but also rapidly to the new needs expressed by society. Finally, the research again brings to light the necessity that the formation of legal rules—whose application is entrusted to the judge—be suitable for the purpose for which those rules are created. Indeed, an appropriate rule-making process within a complex society, characterized by multi-level legal orders such as that of today, is and must be regarded as the conditio sine qua non for achieving not only formal but also substantial and concrete protection of rights.

This book is included in DOAB.