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The Justice system in Italy
The judicial function (Administering Justice) can be broken down into the following areas: ordinary civil and criminal, administrative, accounting, military, and taxation.
Jurisdiction over administrative matters is exercised by "Tribunali Amministrativi Regionali" - T.A.R. (Regional Administrative Courts) and by the "Consiglio di Stato" (Council of State). Jurisdiction over accounting matters is exercised by the "Corte dei conti" (Court of Accounts) with the General Public Prosecutor's office based at the same court.
Jurisdiction over taxation matters is exercised by the Provincial Taxation Commissions and the District Taxation Commissions. Jurisdiction in military affairs is exercised by: Military Courts, Military Appeal Courts, Surveillance Military Courts, Military Prosecutors based at the military courts, and General Military Prosecutors based at the Military Appeal Courts, and the General Military Prosecutor based at the Court of Cassation.
Jurisdiction over ordinary civil and criminal matters is exercised by magistrates belonging to the Judicial Order which is divided into judges on the one side and magistrates of the public prosecutor's office on the other, fulfilling the roles of judges and investigators respectively.
The different types of "Judges" can be divided up as follows:
- Justice of the Peace (Giudice di pace)
- Court (Tribunale)
- Assize Court (Corte di assise)
- Surveillance Judge (Giudice di sorveglianza)
- Juvenile Court (Tribunale dei minorenni)
- Court of Appeal (Corte di appello)
- Assizes Appeal Court (Corte d'assise d'appello)
- Court of Cassation (Corte di cassazione)
- Regional Court of Public Water (Tribunale regionale delle acque pubbliche)
- Higher Court of Public Water (Tribunale superiore delle acque pubbliche)
- Commissioners for the adjudication of Customary Rights
Magistrates in the Public Prosecution service can be divided up as follows:
- Public prosecutor based at the Court
- Public prosecutor at the Juvenile Court
- General Public prosecutor based at the Court of Appeal
- General Public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation.
The following are specific offices within the public prosecutor service: the National Anti-Mafia Public Prosecutor and the District anti-Mafia Public Prosecutor.
Administration of Ordinary Civil and Criminal Justice
The administration of ordinary civil and criminal justice is one of the most important services provided to the citizen by the State. It includes a judicial and an administrative function.
The judicial function is exercised by the magistrates while the administrative function is entrusted to the Minister of Justice.
The magistrates are based and work from the Court Offices, located in accordance with local territorial jurisdictional areas.
The Minister of Justice carries out the administrative functions through a structure divided between the Ministry of Justice staff (made up of the Rome central office) and the staff of the court offices, representing the outlying centres of the administration.
In addition to the judicial function, the court offices carry out both purely administrative duties (under the Ministry) and judicial services acting as support for the judicial function, carried out by the magistrates.
The administrative functions of the outlying offices are carried out both by administrative staff and by those magistrates appointed as heads of the court office.
The Minister and the Ministry of Justice
Two articles of the Italian Constitution mention the Minister of Justice's important duties: the organisation and running of the service necessary for the exercise of the judicial function (Article 110) and the exercise of disciplinary action against magistrates (Article 107).
More generally, one of the Minister of Justice's important functions in the context of the executive arm, is that of Holder of the Seals.
This means that the Minister assumes the position of the main guarantor and office holder responsible for the laws approved by Parliament by the affixing of the seal. He or she is also responsible for their publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic and for the maintenance of the official collection of the corpus of laws and decrees.
The Minister has been given other important duties by the various laws contained in the Codes and in the judicial regulation.
The Ministry of Justice's duties are thus concerned both with administrative activities in the areas of management and provision of services, and activities of particular importance connected to the legal system as a whole.
The services include the following: staff recruitment and administration, provision of buildings, operational structures and capital goods.
The Ministry's management duties cover 4 sectors: judicial, prisons, juvenile justice and notarial archives.
The Ministries duties in relation to the legal system in general, consist of specific duties in the area of legislation, in the regulation of the professions, in the enforcement of punishments and the treatment of prisoners. They also include examination of applications for pardon to put to the President of the Republic, as well as of requests for authorisation to proceed with proceedings, for extradition, for service of international interrogatories, etc...
In the Relations with the Superior Council of the Magistracy, the Minister participates in the procedure for the appointment of the heads of the court offices and may take part in the Council's meetings to give indications or clarification. The Minister is also entitled to request information on the functioning of the justice system in relation to individual judges or magistrates from the head of a particular court office. He or she is also able to exercise functions of inspection and the conduct of administrative enquiries both for the fulfilment of his or her constitutional duties and for the purposes of the taking of disciplinary action.
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Last modified: 14/05/2008
