PROJECT

Cultural diversity is a core feature of most contemporary societies, regardless of its historical causes (colonisation or immigration). The research project focuses on the instruments used for the accommodation of cultural diversity within the framework of constitutionalism and its basic values–above all, the defense of pluralism. Cultural diversity and legal pluralism do not perfectly overlap; thus, the accommodation of diversity in pluralistic contexts requires tools for interaction and societal engagement that might lead to a partial modification of the relationship between the individual, communities, and institutions, and therefore to a transformative process of the form of State.
Historically, the evolution of the form of State has been usually complemented by different models of accommodation of cultural diversity, that range from assimilation to multiculturalism. The performance of these paradigms of diversity management has so far triggered little outcomes in terms of effective integration of different cultural groups within the States; and the failure of multicultural policies has been openly acknowledged by various political leaders (Angela Merkel, 2010; Cameron, 2011; Nicolas Sarkozy, 2011).
Western legal systems still rely on the key paradigm of the liberal Nation State with its monism in terms of sources of law and jurisdiction, as well as of citizenship as the only status granting a complete set of rights. By contrast, new legal tools for the management of diversity can be found in the legal systems of the South of the world, where a model of intercultural State has been adopted.
The research will thus address the different meanings the term "interculturalism" discloses in social sciences, politics, and law. As for legal studies, the term labels different items both inside the Western context (see, for instance, the definitions by the Québec legislator and by the Council of Europe) and in comparison with other traditions. In Latin America, it is possible to find the most important examples of a conscious and systematic use of interculturalism in the constitutions (Ecuador and Bolivia): the intended goal is to frame a new form of State, whose foundations are:
1) The active participation of all cultural components in the constituent process, as well as in the law- and policy- decision-making process having regard to every area of social life.
2) The recognition of a physical and/or personal space for the application of chthonic law, within the framework of constitutional limits (legal pluralism).
3) The recognition of the special indigenous jurisdiction as a part of the judiciary and the intercultural composition of State jurisdictions.
Together with the comparative analysis of the manifold legal experiences that have shaped the new concept of intercultural State, the study of the cultural, social, and legal premises we have described above represent the starting point and the theoretical and epistemological framework of the project. Its general objective is to ascertain the possible reception of the intercultural State in Europe, as an alternative model of diversity management, both with respect to the previous multicultural model and to emerging signs of a return to national anti-integrationist policies.
The formalistic approach of the Western legal tradition must thus be confronted with legal and judicial pluralism. Nevertheless, even in the legal dimension of the European space, there are already traces of the recognition of a limited legal pluralism, as well as examples of special jurisdictions.
By examining Italian and European case studies, the research project will scrutinise the patterns of resilience and competition between different legal traditions and will compare them with the model of intercultural State. By doing so, we aim to investigate: 1) to what extent the transplant of these institutions represents an exception to the original monistic and positivistic paradigm of the Western Legal Tradition; 2) whether such transplant can be considered a natural process of co-evolution that can be expressed and systematised as a constitutive feature of a new form of State.
The last question addressed by this research project points to the imperative limits of this process. From an intercultural perspective, two conditions must be satisfied in order to converge on a common set of accepted limits: the mutual lessening in distance between the different cultural positions, and the willingness to mediate between them.
The research project aims to integrate the legal definition of intercultural State with some sociological remarks: a) to highlight the current efforts of the major cultural groups to reduce the incompatibilities between themselves, and b) to identify the areas where the process is most likely to succeed and those where it will be more critical to reach an effective and successful management of cultural diversity in Europe.