Italian and European Criminal Constitutional Law

The First Part of the course will be dedicated to an introduction to constitutional penal law. In particular, to the three phases that characterized its birth and development: the liberal period, the period of the Sixties and especially the Seventies of the twentieth century and finally the period from the Nineties onwards, up to the present day, when European law became more relevant. The Second Part of the course will examine the principles of constitutional penal law present in the Italian Constitution: starting from articles 2 and 3, the personalist principle and the principle of equality, we will delve into personal freedom (art. 13), legality (art. 25), and the fundamental art. 27 on personal penall responsibility, the presumption of innocence, the sense of humanity and re-education and the prohibition of the death penalty. Extensive references will also be made to other articles that complete the constitutional framework of reference. Finally, the Third Part addresses issues of fundamental importance and extreme topicality, in particular with regard to European and conventional criminal law and with regard to the solution of difficult cases by the legislator and judges.