L'eccessiva durata dei processi in Italia e le conseguenze a livello europeo

The topic tackled by this article is the excessive duration of court cases in Italy. The investigation opens with a brief description of the methods used to protect the individual's rights in the system of jurisdiction established by the European Convention in Human Right (ECHR) and by European Community Law. The authors then analyse the right to a fair trial, as enshrined in Article 6 of the Convention, dwelling in particular on the right to a trial “within a reasonable time” and on Italy's serious, persistent violation of this right, which is so extensive as to have developed into the “Italian case”, because of the number of sentences that have gone against Italy and the monitoring to which it has been subjected. In addition to listing the various steps taken by the Italian authorities to mitigate the problem of the excessive duration of court cases, the authors focus special attention on Italian law N° 98/2001 (so called Pinto Law), which introduced a mechanism for fiar internal damages, adapting it from the conventional model in favour of people who suffer a violation of their right to trial within a reasonable time. Although this law has enabled the dispute pending before the Court of Strasbourg to be scaled down, the authors point out that it has not introduced any substancial reforms aimed at accelerating the trial process itself. The complaints that contest the validity of this measure in the light of article 13 of the Convention- the right to an effective appeal – are now before the European Court and are introducing new prospects of conflict and of reappraisal of the Pinto Law, not only by the legislator, but also by judges, who are often at variance with the opinions expressed by the European Court, as is demonstrated in practice.