Diletta Tegga

is a researcher of Constitutional Law at the University of Milan – Bicocca, School of Law.  Research Project: Different Country, Different Definition? The Constitutional Meaning of the Principle of Equality.

Diletta Tega is a researcher of Constitutional Law at the University of Milan – Bicocca, School of Law. She is lecturer of Public Law and Protection of Fundamental Rights, at the University of Bologna, graduate degree in International cooperation, regulation and protection of fundamental rights and etno-cultural inheritance. She received a J.S.D. in Constitutional Law from the University of Bologna, School of Law in 1998. She obtained a PhD in Constitutional Law from the University of Bologna, School of Law and the University of Paris X Nanterre in 2003. She is also Junior expert for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
Her research interests fall broadly in the field of fundamental rights and the so called multilevel protection of rights. She studies in particular the ECHR and the Italian Constitutional Court jurisprudence on religious freedom and the so called new rights. She has published studies in many different fields of constitutional, comparative and European Union law.

Research Project

Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere: a Debatable Question

During her time at the Jean Monnet Center, Diletta Tega will focus her research on the Constitutional Meaning of the Principle of Equality. The research will focus on the conflict between the different meanings of the principle equality in European law and at national constitutional level. It is common knowledge that in the aftermath of the proclamation of art. 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty (1998) the EU has strengthened its antidiscrimination legislation, which clearly assumes the principle of equality as a principle of non discrimination. The progressive increase in antidiscrimination clauses contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights concerning personal and social conditions is, on one hand, the demonstration of a positive evolution in the protection of fundamental rights, on the other, there is a risk of supporting the existence of a generic right to not be treated differently in any sector. This interpretation conflicts with the idea of enhancing diversity (or with the “right to diversity” that exists in some countries), which has gained growing importance in contemporary multi-cultural societies. The risk is therefore that of obtaining a result that is exactly the opposite of the initial aim. This extended meaning also thins out the legal aspects of the principle of equality thus rendering it less effective from a legal standpoint. The research will explore the conflict between the different meanings of the principle equality in European law and at national constitutional level. In particular, the main goal will be to determine if and how the European definition of the principle of equality may weaken national constitutional law.