Judiciary of Italy

• Inferior courts of original and general jurisdiction
• Intermediate appellate courts which hear cases on appeal from lower courts
• Courts of last resort which hear appeals from lower appellate courts on the interpretation of law.

  Glossary of key terms

• Appello : for almost all courts in Italy, it is possible to appeal the ruling, both for disagreement on how the court appreciated the facts or on disagreements with how the court interpreted the law.
• Avvocatura dello Stato: the public organ, composed of lawyers, which represents the State, whenever it is plaintiff or defendant in a lawsuit.
• Cassazione: the Court of Cassazione acts as cassation jurisdictions, which means that it has supreme jurisdiction on quashing the judgments of inferior courts if those courts misapplied law. Generally, cassation is based not on outright violations of law, but on diverging interpretations of law between the courts. Cassation is not based on the facts of the case. Cassation is always open as a final recourse.
• Codice : collection of enacted statutory law or regulations relating to a single topic. Modern Italian law codes date back to the 19th century, though all codes have since been abolished and substituted.
• Contraddittorio
• Contravvenzione : lowest kind of crimes punishable by fines or at most short jail sentences.
• Delitto : more severe crimes, punishable by fines, prison sentences or life imprisonment.
• Giudice monocratico.
• Giudice collegiale : it is important to note that, in this case, Giudice refers both to every single person composing the panel and to the panel itself.
• Giurisprudenza. While Italian judges, in keeping with the civil law tradition, do not create law, and thus there is no case law properly said, the decisions of the higher courts are of great importance and may establish long-lasting doctrine. While there is no stare decisis rule forcing lower courts to decide according to precedent, they tend to do so in practice, because, should they not do that, the higher court might quash their judgements, in keeping with its jurisprudence.
• Inamovibilità : Judges cannot be removed from office, except through specific disciplinary proceedings, for infringements on their duties. They may be moved or promoted only with their own will. These protections are meant to ensure that they are independent from the executive power.
• Magistrato : general term encompassing Judges and prosecutors ; the Magistratura, or judiciary, is a collective term for all judicial officers. Magistrati are government employees, but statutorily kept separate and independent from the other branches of government. Magistrati are expected to maintain a certain degree of distance ; that is, they must refrain from actions and statements that could hinder their impartiality or make it appear that their impartiality is compromised, e.g., refrain from making public political statements.
• Magistratura amministrativa : courts of this order judge most cases against the government.
• Magistratura ordinaria : courts of this order judge civil and criminal cases.
• Procura della Repubblica: the Ufficio del Pubblico Ministero attached to the Courts of first instance; it is headed by a Procuratore della Repubblica and composed by many Procuratori Aggiunti, Sostituti Procuratori and Vice Procuratori.
• Procura Generale della Repubblica: the Ufficio del Pubblico Ministero attached to the Corte d'Appello; it is headed by a Procuratore Generale della Repubblica.
• Presidente di Sezione : chief Judge of a division of a court.
• Presidente di Tribunale or Presidente di Corte d'Appello or Primo Presidente della Corte di Cassazione: the Chief Justice of a given Court.
• Pubblicità. All civil, administrative and criminal justice, as well as all financial cases where individuals may be fined, end up with audiences open to the public. There are narrow exceptions to this requirement: cases involving national security secrets, as well as cases of rape and other sexual attacks, may be closed or partially closed to the public, respectively in order to protect the secret or in order not to add to the pain of the victim. Cases with defendants that are minors are not open to the public and the names of the defendants are not made public, so that they are not stigmatized for life.
• Pubblico Ministero : this office can be translated into prosecutor but the functions of a Pubblico Ministero also include the general monitoring of the activity of the court in both criminal and civil cases.
• Sentenza : it is composed of two parts; the first, the parte motiva contains the written explanation by the Judge of how and why he decided in that particular way; the other, the dispositivo, contains the Judge's orders to the parties.
• Sezione : subdivisions of a large court of general jurisdiction.
• Sezione specializzata : a sezione, which is specialized on a specific area of law.
• Ufficio del Pubblico Ministero, : responsible for the prosecution of cases. It requests enquiries to be made; during court hearings, it brings out accusations against the suspect. In addition, it has a role of general monitoring of courts.
• Tribunale: generally refers to a court of record of first instance having original jurisdiction and whose judgments are appealable; it is the only Court that can be either monocratica or collegiale, that it is to say that it can be composed of one or three Judges, according to the case it is dealing with.

  Judicial stream

Civil court

Justice of the Peace

Tribunale

Divisions and Specialized Divisions

Court of Appeal

Court of Cassation

Criminal courts

Courts of first instance

Appellate courts