Principles of Criminal Evidence;The Abolition of Penalties in Absentia; and The Fight against Corruption and the Incrimination of Legal Entities: these are the titles of the latest works of Professor Paolo Moscarini. In these three analyses, Moscarini, a full professor of criminal procedural law at the LUISS Department of Law, illustrates several of the most recent changes to Italian criminal law, in substance and in procedure, pursuant to international conventions and European human rights law.
Overall, the works reflect changes in the opinions expressed by the Court of Strasbourg, which, explains the professor, "with its decisions – recently, the judge that rules on the constitutionality of our laws attributed binding effects with regard to the Italian legislature – has ended up imposing radical changes, pursuant to international norms on criminal law, the impartiality of judges, the presumption of innocence, and the right of the accused to face his accuser."
Of the three works, Principles is the most didactic, presenting the general concepts that inspire criminal law investigation and the legal standards applied. In particular, the author shows how "the idea of searching for the truth at all costs has disappeared from modern criminal procedure. This was done mainly in order to protect fundamental human rights, such as personal liberty and the right to a defense; the latter entails, first and foremost, cross-examinations and the right to remain silent."
In the second one, The Abolition of Penalties in Absentia, the professor underlines the crucial role played in European case law in the contemporary era. Specifically, this role "sets out the principle that, even if a trial in the absence of the accused is admissible, a second trial is obligatory if the first trial ended without the accused knowing about it. It was precisely this guideline that, most recently, led the Italian Parliament to abolish (in Law 67/2014) the institution of penalties in absentia."
European case law is also carefully analyzed in The Fight against Corruption. Here, the professor first explains the changes brought to the criminal justice system by Law 190/2012, which introduced the idea of corruption by induction, a corruption initiated by the public official, “but this law involves an unprecedented punishment for the private entity that was ‘induced’ as well.” In addition, given that Legislative Decree 231/2001 means that legal entities are held criminally liable for similar crimes against the public administration, Moscarini, in his essay, identifies the features of the direct judicial process that ensures this liability, “in this way showing the criticality of a model that combines the maximum of deterrence with maximum security.”