https://hdl.handle.net/10807/73 2026-09-12T14:53:13Z https://hdl.handle.net/10807/346337 Titolo: Relazioni di coppia e diritto Autori: Nicolussi A Abstract: This essay examines the law of couple relationships fifty years after the reform of Italian family law, reading it through several dichotomies that have long shaped family-law discourse: institution and contract, nature and culture, body and will, act and fact. The single marital form that emerged from the 1975 reform has given way to a pluralistic regime. Couples may now choose a strong bond — marriage for different-sex couples, civil union for same-sex couples — or, in either case, a weak one: cohabitation, which may or may not be further regulated by agreement. The common diagnosis of a weakening marital bond, which for the same reasons should extend to civil unions, is neither certain nor settled. It must reckon with developments that betray a dissatisfaction with that weakening, chief among them the rise of liability for breach of personal family obligations (so-called intra-family torts) alongside liability for breach of patrimonial ones. On this reading, even the possibility of agreements on the conduct of family life does not make such obligations freely disposable. Case law, including that of the Constitutional Court, pulls in two directions at once. It has renewed the constitutional principle protecting the unity of the family and extended it to cohabiting couples, while countervailing pressures, legislative ones included, push to recast divorce from a remedy into a unilateral withdrawal. What remains is the family as the institution in which the couple transcends itself in parenthood. The essay closes by considering some of the family's social functions, including de iure condendo. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10807/346317 Titolo: Guerra e pace per le risorse naturali Autori: Zoboli R Abstract: Il saggio analizza la relazione tra risorse naturali, conflitti e cooperazione internazionale in una prospettiva di political economy. La natura economica delle risorse—rivalità, escludibilità, rinnovabilità e commerciabilità—contribuisca a spiegare la diversa propensione al conflitto o alla cooperazione. L’analisi considera tre casi: risorse fossili, acqua e clima. I combustibili fossili e le materie prime critiche sono generalmente beni privati, non rinnovabili e commerciabili, e generano dipendenze strategiche e competizione geopolitica. La loro commerciabilità può tuttavia sostenere anche un paradigma di “pace e commercio”, fondato sugli scambi e sull’interdipendenza internazionale. L’acqua, invece, è localizzata e non commerciabile, generando sia conflitti sia incentivi alla cooperazione nei bacini transfrontalieri. Il clima rappresenta un global Commons, la cui governance richiede un’azione collettiva tra Stati sovrani. Il regime climatico internazionale può quindi essere interpretato come un tentativo di passare dalla “Tragedia dei commons” di Hardin verso una governance dei commons nel senso di Ostrom. Tuttavia, il nuovo “paradigma del cambiamento climatico” genera anche nuovi conflitti. La transizione dai combustibili fossili mette in discussione interessi economici e geopolitici consolidati e può produrre stranded assets e resistenze politiche. La distribuzione del Global Carbon Budget residuo genera conflitti distributivi tra Paesi con diverse responsabilità storiche e diverse esigenze di sviluppo. La transizione alimenta inoltre la competizione per le materie prime critiche necessarie alle tecnologie energetiche, digitali e militari. L’articolo conclude che le risorse naturali possono essere fonte sia di conflitto sia di cooperazione. La loro natura economica è importante, ma deve essere interpretata insieme alle relazioni di potere, alle strategie geopolitiche, al cambiamento tecnologico e alle istituzioni internazionali. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10807/346241 Titolo: VR in the situated language framework: Leveraging the ecological validity Autori: Repetto, Claudia; Scerrati, Elisa Abstract: This chapter examines the use of Virtual Reality (VR) within the situated language framework, which holds that language comprehension is grounded in perceptual, motor, and contextual experiences. Concepts are understood through multi-modal simulations tied to specific contexts—so-called situated conceptualizations—and involve recognizing affordances (context-dependent action possibilities) and drawing on sensorimotor schemas linking perception, action, and language. Traditional methods have struggled to reproduce such dynamic, real-world contexts under experimental control. VR emerges as a transformative tool, reconciling experimental control with ecological validity by treating them as orthogonal dimensions. It enables immersive, controllable environments that preserve naturalistic interaction. Key advantages include the study of multimodal communication, removal of artificial trial structures, consistent simulation of social partners via virtual agents, improved reproducibility, and integration with technologies like EEG and eye tracking. Empirical research confirms VR’s utility in psycholinguistics, revealing its effectiveness in exploring predictive processing, embodied semantics, syntactic alignment, and bilingual language control. In communication research, VR has enabled studies on gesture-speech synchrony, prosodic accommodation, avatar-based interaction, and subtle cues like listener blinks. In Second Language Acquisition (SLA), VR supports oral and written production, vocabulary acquisition, and communicative competence by embedding learners in realistic, task-based environments. These findings align with situated and experiential learning theories, emphasizing engagement, presence, and reduced anxiety. In sum, VR is not merely a simulation tool but a methodological revolution for studying language as a dynamic, multimodal, and context-sensitive phenomenon, offering unprecedented opportunities for theoretical advancement and applied research. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10807/346240 Titolo: VR in the embodied language framework: Leveraging embodiment and virtual actions Autori: Repetto C.; Scerrati E. Abstract: This chapter explores how Virtual Reality (VR) contributes to the embodied language framework, which posits that linguistic meaning is grounded in the body's sensorimotor systems. Understanding words and sentences involves partial re-enactments of perception and action, supported by neural mechanisms shared with motor control and sensory processing. Traditional paradigms often struggle to elicit such embodied activations within controlled laboratory conditions. VR provides a powerful methodological solution by allowing the controlled simulation of perception–action coupling and bodily interaction within immersive, ecologically valid environments. The chapter first outlines the theoretical foundations of embodied language, focusing on how sensorimotor contingencies, agency, self-location, and body ownership jointly determine the degree of embodiment in linguistic processing. It then reviews empirical research demonstrating how virtual actions—performed, observed, or imagined—modulate comprehension, learning, and memory for linguistic material. Across its applications, VR emerges as more than a visualization tool: it becomes an experimental instrument for operationalizing embodiment in language research. By aligning bodily experience with linguistic meaning, VR bridges the gap between controlled experimentation and ecological realism. It allows researchers to examine how meaning emerges through action, perception, and situated interaction, offering new insights into how the human body grounds the mind's linguistic capacities. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z