RICERCA ITALIANA     

The influence outside Italy of italian criminal law science in the age of codification.

Università degli Studi di Pavia

Abstract

Since the seventies of the last century many italian law historians and criminal law writers have published a number of researches regarding the development of modern criminal law in Italy. Although concerning specific subjects, these researches are very interesting as they give us, at last, a good survey about the history of criminal law in Italy during the last centuries. On the contrary, today in Italy it is very difficult to find general or specific studies regarding the influence outside Italy of the italian legal science on the general development in Europe (and in the rest of the world) of criminal law and criminal procedure during the age of codification. Therefore, there is still a large number of original and fruitful research themes to be studied, suggested from this lack of modern historiography regarding this prominent aspect of italian law modern history. This is the starting point of the entire planned research, which will bring into focus two geographical areas. The first one is the euro-mediterranean area, where a preliminary prospecting suggests a wide circulation of italian criminal law literature and a remarkable influence of italian criminal codes on some local lawmaking. The second area that the planned research will focus is represented by the Latin-American countries. Always the Latin-American juridical literature had been linked to the Italian one, with a remarkable relationship between Italian and Latin-American researcher. Inevitable, therefore >>>

Principal Investigator

Ettore DEZZA Università degli Studi di PAVIA

Research Objectives

Up to recent times, approximately to the early sixties of the Twentieth century, the historical-juridical inquiry about criminal law in modern codification age was mostly neglected, even if it was a mostly important period in the development of contemporary law. To those who wanted to have an idea of italian criminal law during that period there was no other way but looking up in the literature of the time, obviously linked to the specific moment the book was published in. The only works of synthesis were those of Pessina, Del Giudice and Salvioli: the most recent is of the twenties of the Twentieth century. Those works has not been re-published yet (apart from a partial re-edition of the one by Del Giudice) and, up to a few years ago, the penal-juridical footprint of the codification age was wholly set out from contemporary juridical culture. In an age of necessary and pressing reform, like the one we are still living in, it cannot be ignored anymore when was coming in issue the importance many subjects of debate in the codification age Italian penal culture have had, whose echoes went far beyond the national borders. It was thus necessary to proceed to a an organic and systematic research wholly inquiring the data of the penal-juridical experience, from the lawmaking to the case law, from the development of scholarship to the influence abroad of the italian criminal law science.
Fortunately, since the seventies of the last century many italian law historians and >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

In the last decades, in Italy as elsewhere, the publication of specialised journals (like «Diritto Penale XXI Secolo») and studies and the organization of conferences and seminars bear witness to a renewed interest in the various aspects of criminal history in the age of modern codification. In Italy, special attention has been devoted to the development of juridical culture and to the codification of criminal law both by law historians (see the works of Alessi, Carcereri de Prati, Cassi, Cattaneo, Cavanna, Cazzetta, Colao, Comanducci, Da Passano, Dezza, di Renzo Villata, Ferrante, Fozzi, Geri, Garlati Giugni, Isotton, Labardi, Lacché, Liva, Marchetti, Massetto, Mastroberti, Mazzacane, Mele, Miletti, Minnucci, Montorzi, Novarese, Pace, Padoa Schioppa, Rondini, Rosoni, Sciumè, Sbriccoli, Soffietti, Storti, Tavilla, Vanzelli) and by criminal law writers (see the works of Brunelli, Cadoppi, Chiavario, Cordero, De Francesco, Del Corso, Ellero, Gargani, Giarda, Ferrua, Grosso, Larizza, Luparia, Manna, Mantovani, Martini, Moccia, Neppi Modona, Nobili, Padovani, Catalano, Pittaro, Stile, Tonini, Vinciguerra, Violante). Additionally, many normative texts and documents (like the penal codes series carried out by Sergio Vinciguerra and the projects studied by Adriano Cavanna) were published and have therefore become available to scholars. Italian historians have paid less attention to implementation of penal law. Yet, deprivation of freedom and other kinds of punishment were of >>>