Pubblications
BOOKS
1) G. Cavaggion, I diritti della maggioranza nel costituzionalismo contemporaneo. Possibili derive illiberali della difesa dell’identità nazionale, Torino, Giappichelli, 2025, pp. I-583.
(Majority rights in contemporary constitutionalism. Possible illiberal drifts of the national identity defence)
Abstract: Over the past decade, theories of “majority rights” (or “rights of the majority”) have emerged in political-institutional debate and in public law scholarship. These theories are grounded in the new idea that “historical” (or “native”) national majorities are entitled to a constitutional protection of their identity (and thus of the values, language, religion, practices, and customs that define their traditional “way of life”) from the transformations generated by a multicultural and globalized society, if necessary through the imposition of corresponding obligations upon minorities. The monograph aims to reconstruct the origins, development, and implementation of these theories in contemporary constitutionalism, in order to assess their compatibility with the Italian and European constitutional order and their impact on the resilience of the form of state and the system of fundamental constitutional principles.
Keywords: European values; fundamental principles; cultural identity; majority rights; national identities; populism; nationalism; multicultural society; globalization
ARTICLES
1) G. Cavaggion, Nuove e vecchie sfide per i valori europei: tra “promozione dello stile di vita europeo” e difesa delle identità culturali, in Centro Studi sul Federalismo – Research Papers, ottobre 2023, pp. 1-25.
(New and old challenges for European values: between the “promotion of the European way of life” and the defence of cultural identities)
Abstract: The paper studies, in a Constitutional Law perspective, the challenges that the protection of different (individual, group, national) cultural identities poses for the promotion and protection of European values (article 2 TEU), defined as the fundamental principles at the basis of the common constitutional tradition. These challenges are: the rejection of European values on behalf of “new minorities” that invoke the right to preserve their original cultural identity; the rejection of European values on behalf of EU member States that invoke the right to preserve their “national identity”; the rejection of European values in the international community of States on behalf of actors that invoke a new “multipolar” world. The paper aims at highlighting the common threads that these challenges share, and to analyse the first answers by European institutions.
Keywords: European values; fundamental principles; cultural identity; common constitutional tradition; cultural rights; cultural defence; constitutional identity.
POLICY PAPERS
1) G. Cavaggion, Le attuali ambiguità della difesa dei valori europei, tra populismi e promozione della “European way of life”, in Fondazione CSF Policy papers – Nuova serie, n. 5, 2025, pp. 1-15.
(The current ambiguities of the defence of European values, between populisms and the promotion of the “European way of life”)
Abstract: The paper explores the theme of the defense of “European values,” highlighting how it has become the focus of competing claims by European Union institutions on the one hand, and by populist and nationalist political forces on the other. While EU institutions conceive of “European values” as the foundation of the “European way of life”, translated into legal rules through the principles of the common constitutional tradition, populist forces instead interpret them as synonymous with a traditional national socio-cultural identity that must be protected from an alleged decline in an increasingly multicultural and globalized world. The initiatives undertaken by EU institutions in the 2019–2024 period have proved insufficient in addressing the challenge posed by populism. The decisive factor will therefore be the ability of EU institutions to implement the political priorities relating to the defence of European values identified for the 2024–2029 period.
Keywords: European values; national identities; majority rights; constitutional identity defence; European way of life.
2) G. Cavaggion, Il valore della pace nel nuovo disordine globale: prospettive future tra difesa comune e tradizione costituzionale europea, in Fondazione CSF Policy papers – Nuova serie, n. 11, 2026, pp. 1-17.
(The value of peace in the new global disorder: future perspectives between a common defence and the European constitutional tradition)
Abstract: The paper explores the new challenges facing the fundamental European value of peace in the current context of global disorder. After outlining the origins and role of peace as a fundamental (and founding) value of the European Union, it highlights how this value is now being challenged, from an external perspective, by the rejection of peace within the international community of States (as exemplified, in particular, by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine), and by the Union’s resulting inability to continue protecting and promoting peace by relying solely on its economic power. This, in turn, gives rise to an internal challenge, represented by the Union’s shifting approach through initiatives such as “ReArm Europe”, aimed at ensuring that Europe possesses a significant military and deterrence capacity. The paper argues that such initiatives, if properly framed within the broader system of values of the European common constitutional tradition, far from constituting a “betrayal” of the founding value of peace, may instead enable the Union to continue protecting and promoting it both within Europe and in the international scenario.
Keywords: European values; peace; global disorder; European common defence; war.