Collegial judge, ministry opens up on new agenda

On the Collegiate Magistrate's Court, the alarm of the ANM is immediately matched by the Ministry of Justice's openness to the determination of a chronoprogramme to avoid the paralysis of judicial offices. As of 25 August next, according to the timetable marked out by the Nordio law, the competence to decide on the application of apersonal precautionary measure is entrusted toa college and no longer to a single Gip, a way to raise the level of guarantees that nevertheless clashes with a reality characterised by serious criticalities.

Indeed, the data from the Csm attest to widespread and extensivestaff shortages, especially in small and medium-sized offices where it is impossible to set up a specialised section. So much so that yesterday the Anm came out into the open and, in a statement, called for the measure to be suspended. In fact, collegiality 'will paralyse medium and small courts, and will cause in the large ones a increase in trial times, without any real benefit. 39 judge/gup offices are staffed by less than three magistrates and 28 have three. In all of these offices, half of the total, more judges will have to be deployed, with other areas being uncovered'. For this reason, the National Association of Magistrates concludes, 'it is necessary to suspend immediately the entry into force of the rule until the necessary adjustment of the organic plants. The number of Italian magistrates is little more than half the European average and this is unacceptable if we want to guarantee an effective service for the protection of everyone's rights".

And in the afternoon comes the opening of the ministry of Justice. Where, abandoning the tones of the referendum campaign, it underlines the 'rediscovered spirit of collaboration' in which 'a timetable will be drawn up, which will also provide for a real confrontation with the Superior Council of the Judiciary and with the legal profession, as already hoped for in the event of a 'yes' vote in the referendum'.

As for the lawyers, the Penal Chambers put the brakes firmly on the hypothesis of suspension or postponement. For the president of the criminal lawyers, "the one whose postponement is requested by the ANM is a rule that, as it is aimed at ensuring greater depth and weighting in the assessment of the application of the precautionary measure of custody in prison, can only be considered fundamental also in view of the abnormal use of pre-trial detention in our country and the very high number of unjust detentions recorded".

"On the staffing levels,' Petrelli observes, 'we must emphasise that the law has taken care of this and that, in addition to the large number of magistrates hired in the last competition, there is also an army of magistrates out of office that could be called back into service in order to allow the immediate application of a rule of guarantee with respect to the fundamental rights of freedom of the citizen and the presumption of innocence of the suspect.