Stato di diritto e identita rom (Rule of Law and Romani Identity), by Alessandro Simoni (Ed.)

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EUMAP: EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program > Online Journal > Book Reviews > Stato di diritto e identita rom (Rule of Law and Romani Identity), by Alessandro Simoni (Ed.)

Stato di diritto e identita rom (Rule of Law and Romani Identity), by Alessandro Simoni (Ed.)

Silvia Fanfani

Italian, French and English
Published by: L’Harmattan Italia, Torino
2005, 194 pages

Good treatments of the legal implications of the discrimination against Roma are still rare, and this is especially true for works taking a comparative and historical approach. This gap is now at least partially filled with the publication of a volume edited by an Italian professor of comparative law, who has been able to bring together a group of authors from different countries and with very different backgrounds.

The participants in this enterprise examine several distinct subjects. They review the place of "Gypsies" in the history of European legal scholarship (Simoni); the growth of case law on the infringement of fundamental rights of persons of Romani origin in British courts and in Strasbourg (Clements and Ringelheim); the role of strategic litigation in the defence of Roma rights (Garland); the weakness of Roma vis-a-vis immigration law (Zorzella) and the construction of "anti-Gypsism" in judicial behaviour (Governatori).

The overall picture presented in the book is one in which modern legal systems still exhibit a difficulty in respecting rule of law and equal treatment standards when dealing with those who are perceived as "Gypsies". The book illustrates how this is due to a number of factors that are not easy to remove, due to their long-standing roots.

The above-mentioned sections are competently introduced and integrated by two further chapters. Anthropologist Leonardo Piasere contributes an excellent review of the attitude towards Romani presence in the history of European nation states and Letizia Mancini presents an analysis of the recent blossoming of literature on "Romani law".

The main limitation of this trilingual book is represented by the choice of keeping some of the contributions in Italian, thus limiting their access to a more restricted public. A translation in English of these sections would have increased its value, especially since some of the essays not available in English, or at least French, contain very relevant information and reflections. But at least for those who master all the three languages used, the volume is certainly well worth reading, and a sure source of inspiration about problems that are becoming increasingly crucial after the completion of the EU enlargement process.

The author of the review is a PhD candidate in comparative law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ferrara.

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