New skills bet by every government

Whether centre-right, centre-left, or technical, whatever the majority supporting the government, a common thread in justice policies exists: the expansion of the tasks of honorary judges. It is enough to refer to the last few years and the regulations in force and those coming up. If in fact one can go back to 2017 with Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando, Renzi and Gentiloni Governments, for that extension of the competences of justices of the peace (30.000 for lawsuits on movable property and 50,000 for compensation for damage caused by a road or nautical accident) that has been postponed and is due to come into force next 31 October, an intermediate stage is the Cartabia reform, Draghi government, which doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 euro the jurisdiction on disputes over movable property and increased from 20,000 to 25.000 that on accidents; to arrive finally at the Meloni Government with the project crystallised in the bill under discussion in the Senate after the yes of the House that entrusts to the Got the litigations up to 50,000 euro on movable goods and the compensations up to 100,000. But it dates from November 1999, going even further back, the D'Alema government, the delegated law that introduced the criminal jurisdiction of justices of the peace.

In terms of legislation, the reference, for now, is Legislative Decree No. 116/2017, which creates a single statute for the honorary judiciary, pending the Nordio reform. More precisely, two figures of the honorary magistrate are identified, one of a judging nature and the other of a requiring nature: the honorary justice of the peace and the honorary deputy prosecutor. This overcomes the diversified legislation in the sector, and above all the existing gap, in terms of competences, classification and economic compensation, between three different types of honorary magistrates that existed until then: the justice of the peace and the honorary court judges and, in the prosecution sector, the honorary deputy prosecutors.

The system is designed in such a way that the honorary magistrate can only perform judicial work after having completed, in the judicial office where he will subsequently work, a period of traineeship under the direction of a togato magistrate. Admission to the traineeship takes place following a call for applications; a number of those interested in the traineeship equal, if possible, to the number of places identified increased by half. The duration of the traineeship was until a few days ago two years, but by a decree-law approved in the Council of Ministers on 29 November it is lowered to one for honorary judges appointed until the end of 2026.

The requirements to become a justice of the peace are anagraphical, age not exceeding 70 years, education, a degree in law and qualification to practise as a lawyer or as a notary or previous exercise of judicial functions and university teaching of legal subjects.