WTI Magazine #17    2014 Feb, 14
Author : Francesca Papasergi      Translation by:

After the appeal virdict for Meredith Kercher murder's trial, in which Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty, Americans may think that the Italian judicial system is pretty complicated and inconclusive. Sometimes, it is. It needs a deep, substantial reform, and the majority of Italians hopes it happens soon and rapidly.

How does the system work now? It is quite complicated - not to say impossible - to translate legal terms; Italy has a civil law system, while the US has a common law jurisdiction, like other countries historically linked to the British system.

In Italy, there are six, main kinds of jurisdiction: civil, penal, administrative, tax law, accounting and constitutional. The largest branches are the civil and the penal ones.

Both of them have three different instances, depending on the status of the case: the court of first instance, the court of appeal and the Corte di Cassazione. When the penal courts have to decide about specific, grave crimes, they are called Corte d'Assise and Corte d'Assise d'appello. The peculiarity of this courts is in their eight judges: two of them are professionals (giudici togati), six are non-professionals (giudici popolari). The latest are chosen randomly among Italian citizens.

The Corte di Cassazione does not decide about the matter of a trial: it verifies if lower courts followed legal procedures wrongly and if they interpreted or applied the law correctly. For example, the Corte di Cassazione repealed the first virdict of the Corte d'Assise d'Appello for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito because the former judges hadn't worked properly and the trial had to be repeated.

This is not a complete picture, but it can help to understand the status of a trial and maybe will dissipate some doubts.

We know that our system can result a little bit byzantine and convoluted, and we also know we need to change it and make it more comprehensible but please, don't judge us on that.

Update about the Piedmont

Do you remember our piece about Piedmont? We talked about it on January 31. Mr. Roberto Cota's appeal to the Consiglio di Stato was rejected. Because of this virdict, he was dismissed from his office: Piedmont is headed to new elections.