The Italian legal system is based on rules set in place by the Italian Civil Code which define the powers in the state and the main Italian rules of law. Their independence is protected because prosecutors are part of the judiciary, which in Italy is fully separated from the other constitutional powers. The Constituent Assembly, specifically appointed for the task, enacted the Constitution in 1947. Comparing International Criminal Justice Systems Part One 9 Benefits of international comparisons 1.3 International comparisons have an important role to play in building understanding of how individual criminal justice systems are functioning. Legislative powers are vested in the Italian Parliament, in compliance with the Constitution, and under the constraints of EU legislation and international obligations. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd, Lecturer in Environmental Art - School of Art and Design. Starting a business in Italy can take less time but costs more than the EU average. The sources of law are arranged hierarchically (see. Organisations and bodies empowered by a constitutional law (for example, the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL)). Transmission of the text to the other House for approval in the same form or with amendments. However, the difference between these two countries is less marked than it appears. Filing of correspondence exchange between legal counsels regarding a possible agreement between parties. att. Ratify international treaties that Parliament has approved in advance. Pasticcio giudiziario a Milano, i legali di Palazzo Marino perdono in tribunale contro il Comune - IL GIORNO, Elenco delegati aste giudiziarie, partono i corsi per l'iscrizione - NT+ Diritto, Falsi avvocati o vigilantes, le truffe pi diffuse in Toscana - Toscana Media News, Per il terzo anno consecutivo Paolini fra gli Studi Legali dellAnno secondo il Sole24Ore, Studio Paolini nuovamente selezionato fra gli Studi Legali dellAnno secondo il Sole 24 Ore, Voucher 3i per Startup Innovative Cosa finanzia e come richiederlo, Studio Paolini fra gli Studi Legali dellAnno secondo il Sole 24 Ore, Il marchio online e limportanza del domain name. Lawyersitaly. Codice Civile, (Regio Decreto 16 marzo 1942, n. 262). British, French and American Systems of Justice Compared 99 enee, we shall focus on the court system in En-gland.6 There are two judicial structures in England - one for civil cases and one for criminal cases. The differences between them are of course several and significant, so that one might think that they should be referred as the antipodes of the legal system conception, with no chance of commixture from one to the other. The role of the courts here is limited to just spot the right rule and apply it to the instant dispute, interpreting it if necessary. HN0~x=(HzkRDQY!z7%Wuxv7k6Z There is one Corte Costitutzionale which deals with making sure that any law provision complies with the Constitution and is met accordingly, similar to the Supreme Court of the United States (Grossi, 2010). Books: In fact, while the Civil law system stemmed from Roman law and is referred as a system of rules prescribed in authoritative texts, the Common law system is defined as a body of immemorial customary law discovered by the courts, and finds its origin in the 11th century in England, precisely after the Norman conquest of 1066. However, since Italy is a member of the European Union, which makes the European Union legislation the next source of law (Lawyersitaly, 2020). If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on LawTeacher.net then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! The Common law/Civil law dualism has always been pivotal for any scholar approaching the study of Comparative law. Beetween Stare Decisis and Constant Jurisprudence. Been appointed as judges of administrative and accounting courts. This is a very important point: the Supreme Court in Italy does not review the facts of a case, so if the judges are unhappy with the previous decision, the case must be sent back to the Court of Appeal to be re-examined. The court can only order the relief asked for by the parties, which can include: Specific performance of an act by the losing party. Free resources to assist you with your legal studies! Federal courts have limited jurisdiction where they can only hear cases when a federal question is raised (Baum, 2013). This does not mean that in Italy investigations are routinely conducted and structured like in England, because the police consider prosecutors as their superiors during the investigation. Courts can also act as courts of second instance to hear appeals from the lower courts. The President is also the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and chairs the Superior Council of the Judiciary. Relevance and necessity are two of the main criteria used to determine whether evidence should be excluded. The Italian criminal justice system is sometimes branded as semi-adversarial, but its legal culture and the Italian law in action in fact demonstrate an inquisitorial approach to. Approval by the House before which it is first presented. Differing degrees of criminal justice convergence in Italy and Australia. According to reliable statistics, about the 70% of the world finds itself under a legal system identified in Civil Law or Common Law (around 44% of the States are under Civil law, around 27% are under Common law), so anyone who wants to truly dive into the study of matter must almost inevitably deal with at least one of those systems. The judiciary of Italy is a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the Italian Republic. The main role of the judiciary in both civil and criminal trials is to: Govern the hearings and the proceedings, order the parties to file further written statements and set hearings. 0 Though the Italian system of laws uses civil law while the United States uses common law (Mondials, N.d.). (2020). Significant developments affecting this resource will be described below. The judges are represented by the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura which is a body chaired by the President of the Republic and includes the public prosecutor of Corte di Cassazione, and university law professors and attorneys with fifteen years of experience (Grossi, 2010). This is what happened in this case, where the Court of Appeal was told to review all the evidence and issue a verdict on the basis of a logical and legal evaluation of the facts; that is exactly what the court did in the run-up to Fridays verdict. for the Italian justice system this is not, however, a victory . Therefore, the Normans, under command of Henry II, wishing to establish a unified legal system that would become common throughout the country, sent out itinerant judges with the task of ensuring a standardized system of law all across the country, issuing uniform decisions based upon a set of common principles which begun to be crystalized in those decisions: these are the first examples of case-law, and that is the beginning of the Common law, a law common to all English people, in England and all over its colonies. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) consists of: The European Court of Justice, which can be summoned by national courts to consider annulments and appeals or to obtain preliminary rulings regarding the interpretation of EU law. One aspect of the Knox-Sollecito case that most coverage omits to mention is that it is has now been analysed by three prosecutors (at least), a preliminary investigation judge, a preliminary hearing judge, a first instance court, two courts of appeal, the Italian Supreme Court and a significant number of skilled police officers. The Italian legal system is based on continental civil law. Investigations are confidential and therefore any pre-trial inquiries are protected. Common Law Legal Definition. While it does not mean that prosecutors control the police during the investigation, prosecutors rely on the police and interact with them constantly. Reforming Italy's creaking justice system is one of the toughest tasks facing Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government - and one of the conditions the EU attached to the granting of the . If they are fundamentally distinct, the judge will be entitled to hold that the precedent has no applicability in the instant case, according the distinguishing rule, and will issue a new decision which will become a new binding precedent[8]. However, in the University of Torino, a 2:1 (3.5-4.49 on a 5 point scale), translates to 70% - 89% on the 100th and 77-98 on the 110th. A further decision on the legitimacy of a case is allowed on appeal to the Court of Cassation which only considers the legality of the proceedings that the lower courts conducted. No referendum is required to amend laws approved on the second round of voting by a two-thirds majority of the members of each parliamentary house (super majority). The law-making procedure is divided into the following stages: Introduction of draft law (legislative initiative). The United States laws were derived from the common law system of English which was in place at the time of the Revolutionary war at both the federal and state levels. The Constitution is: In written form. When the Supreme Court of Cassation decides that a certain court has jurisdiction over a disputed matter. Eventually, a decision of a lower court can be reversed in appeal; here the case is still open and the decision has not become a precedent yet. Figures expressed per million people for the same year. Although this is a very short summary, it should help clarify why during the investigation the prosecutor becomes the key figure, and why prosecutors have so much influence over political decisions about responses to crime in Italy. [1] The codes are entire bodies of general statutes which deal with generalities and guide the legislator in creating new statutes (written law) outside the code, dealing with more specific matters following the codified principles. Under the Constitution, Italy must agree on conditions of equality with other states and with the necessary limitations of sovereignty to create an order that ensures peace and justice between nations. The intent of this paper is to analyze the legal system of two countries, England and Italy, which historically have a very strong tradition of Common and Civil law being the latter the leading exponent and exporter of the first system, and the former a direct descendant of the Roman law tradition to assess whether effectively those two systems are diametrically the opposite or instead they might be running together, but in parallel, towards a certain point of coincidence. EU legislation (EU directives and regulations) (see. This should also help clarify some of the questions posed by non-academic writers and journalists during the Kercher case: prosecutors were not abusing their power, they were in fact asserting their legally defined central role in the justice system. England - 3. Unless this standard is met, the defendant must be acquitted. (g7J$&r^3*;v|d) *A,l ii @!P2Yx KD-KGHBFcFLY+3C04#DQ5"a j8 *2I1H8l 0;.2j 1AS Xxy&s7?4q2~^fasT$fdyKD`^DP @1,`S/47CY'%@ &d`G The criminal court structure is similar to the civil system, as follows. Se continui ad utilizzare questo sito noi assumiamo che tu ne sia felice. Civil hearings are not generally open to the public and the case file is confidential. These are the substantial assumptions, but obviously the Stare Decisis rule is not absolute. Congress is heavily involved throughout the process of appointing federal judges such as the selection of candidates and confirmation of candidates. Generally there are no provisions making the decisions of higher courts binding on lower courts, except: When reviewing an appeal judgment, the Supreme Court of Cassation can return the file to the Court of Appeal, imposing a specific principle of law to resolve the dispute. The jury system is seen as an integral part of the legal system, even though only 1% of criminal cases go before a jury; among the general public in the UK, juries are more trusted than judges, magistrates or government ministers, and the right to a jury trial is seen as more important even than the right to political protest.