What the justice reform envisages and why do it now

On 23 September the Senate approved the bill for the reform of the criminal trial, with 177 votes in favor and 24 against. Already approved by the Chamber of Deputies after a long negotiation, the text, which has now become law, confers a series of powers to the government to make the criminal process more efficient in terms of speed, simplification, human resources and digitization. On 21 September the bill for the reform of the civil process also obtained a large majority in the Senate: with 201 yes and 30 no, now the measure has passed to the chamber.

The reform projects, on which the government has raised the question of trust, are two conditions for the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP). At the center is the excessive length of the trials: Italy has in fact been admonished several times by the European institutions for the “poor efficiency” of the judicial system. The NRR aims to reduce criminal justice by 25 percent and civil justice by 40 percent in five years.

“The government plays the entire Recovery Fund on the duration of the trials, not just the part linked to justice”, the Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia warned in the chamber on 10 May, referring to the more than 190 billion euros that the European Commission has destined for Italy.

The reform of the criminal process has created many frictions in the majority, especially in terms of prescription, that is the time frame, set by law, after which a crime can no longer be prosecuted.

The bill divides the process into two stages. In the first phase, which goes from the preliminary investigations to the first instance sentence, the so-called substantive prescription (which extinguishes the crime) begins, that is, the one calculated on the basis of the penalty of the crime under investigation. After the first instance sentence, whether it is a sentence or an acquittal, the calculation of the limitation period stops. This part has remained unchanged from the previous Bonafede reform. In the second phase, which runs from the beginning of the appeal process to the cassation sentence, the so-called procedural prescription is introduced instead (which extinguishes the process). That is, the extinction of the trial once a time set by law has elapsed for the degree of appeal and for that of cassation, the same for all crimes.

The reform will be gradual: until 2024 the appeal process can last up to three years with the possibility of an extension of up to four; the cassation process for a year and a half with an extension of up to two. Starting from January 1, 2025, the limitation period will be two years for appeal proceedings and one year for those in cassation, both of which can be extended upon a reasoned decision by the judge.

Crimes punishable with life imprisonment are excluded from the prescription. An exception regime is envisaged for serious crimes, with the possibility of extension without time limits. These include the mafia, terrorism, sexual violence and drug trafficking association. The president of the National Association of Magistrates, Giuseppe Santalucia, warns that “when the legislator proceeds by lists of crimes, there is always the risk of forgetting someone”. Nicola Gratteri, the prosecutor of Catanzaro, also criticized the exclusion from the exception regime of environmental crimes, corruption and extortion.

Faced with criticism, Minister Cartabia specified that “the reform must be read as a whole”. According to the minister, the rule that introduces the statute of limitations, at the end of which there is the extinction of the process, is only one piece of a broader reform aimed at making the whole system more efficient, through digitization, strengthening of the electronic process, the establishment of defined times for preliminary investigations, the adoption of alternative sanctions and the use of restorative justice.

The reform of the civil process also aims to speed up the process by introducing various tools. The first hearing will no longer be just a bureaucratic step but the cause will be examined on the merits from the beginning. Another novelty of the civil trial reform is the introduction of the Tribunal for the people, for minors and for families, a single court that will replace the juvenile courts and the family sections of the ordinary courts. The goal is to standardize the subject, which is now dealt with in distinct procedures that produce a waste of resources and time. The single court will deal with foster care, parental responsibility, adoptions and will have criminal and supervisory functions. Alternative dispute resolution methods (mediation, arbitration and negotiation) are also strengthened, new protections for women who suffer violence are introduced and judgments on employment matters are simplified.

There was no lack of criticism from professionals in the judicial field. The goal of reducing time by 40 percent was judged “unrealistic” by the National Association of Magistrates.

Both reforms provide for the recruitment of staff to support the judges and constitute the trial office, temporary figures to dispose of backward proceedings. Part of the judiciary considers the reform insufficient, because human resources will be “destined to disperse within a few years”.

Italy is the country with the highest number of convictions (1,202) for violating the principle of the reasonable length of the trial, since 1959, the year the European Court of Human Rights was founded. Followed by Turkey (608) and Greece (542).

The average length of the civil trial in Italy is seven years and three months. The criminal trial, on the other hand, in 2019 lasted an average of 4 years and 4 months, from the investigations to the cassation sentence, but the times vary greatly depending on the district of the Court of Appeal. According to the ministry’s data, the duration of the second degree is on average 835 days, in Florence it is about 745 days, in Naples it is 2,031 days. Bari, Bologna, Venice, Rome, Catania and Reggio Calabria also exceed two years, but the remaining courts of appeal, such as those of Catanzaro and Milan, do not exceed 730 days, thus respecting the deadline imposed by the new reform.

Pending criminal proceedings, therefore not completed, at the end of 2020 were 1,631,138, 3.1 per cent more than the previous year’s figures. The civil arrears instead at the end of 2020 counted more than 500 thousand pending proceedings.

Cura di Marika Ikonomu