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The Italian Judiciary – a bunch of commies?

First, let me just say that this is my personal impression, and, as such, it may not be all that accurate.

In Italy, for some reason not entirely clear to me, there seems to be a very odd relationship between the lawmakers and the law enforcers, by which I mean the judiciary. The reason for the antipathy is not all that clear, but I am going to speculate.  You see the magistrates try to ensure that everyone upholds the law, and they do this by interpreting the law as it is written, which means that the political intentions of those behind the laws are not always reflected in the decisions of the courts.  This galls the politicians to the extent that some of them, usually from the right, end up attacking the judicial system and accusing them, for some reason, of being ‘communists’.  You see, those that administer the justice system here believe that they should be independent of the legislature, and in a country which revolves around respecting and nurturing interests, a body which seeks to be as objective as possible does not go down at all well.

Indeed, the true independence of the judiciary has been called into question, to the extent that certain politicians seem to believe that the magistrates and judges have their own secret political agenda.  And this agenda is used as a basis upon which to persecute certain big businessmen, whereas, it is my impression that this perceived ‘persecution’ is not much more than pointing out that laws really are for everyone, and that breaking them for the furtherance of business interests is not on, whoever you may be.

Having fallen foul of this perceived legal persecution a few times, Mr B, who believes that the judiciary is no more than a bunch of communists who are out to get him, apparently set out to prove that the actions of the Italian judiciary are motivated not by a wish to enforce the law, but by political ends.  Indeed, there is a story breaking in Italy at the moment in which it is alleged that during Mr B’s government the Italian secret service was asked to investigate those who ran the judiciary.

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It will be fascinating to hear just how many of those involved in Italy’s judicial system actually are card-carrying communists, and to see whether evidence of a ‘politico-bashing’ agenda really does exist.  I’m quite sure that if it had, Mr B would have been shouting it from the hills to all of Italy, whereas he would have kept very quiet if he had discovered no more than the fact that the primary objective of the judiciary is simply to ensure that everyone respects laws.   Mr B has not been shouting from the hills.

There is good evidence of the integrity of Italian judges: Falcone and Borsellino; whereas it is not too difficult to find evidence of businessmen who have pushed legal boundaries so far that they have eventually moved into the realms of illegality.  This is nothing new, but, generally, those businessmen who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law have created a competent legal team to fight the accusations through the courts, as is normal.  But very few businessmen go to the lengths of accusing prosecutors of using the law as an excuse to bring down someone who is not liked, but then again, I am not aware of many other countries in which the legislature and the juducuary are in permanent conflict either.

If politicians do not like court decisions because they do not reflect political intentions, they should ensure that legislation is drafted better.   By criticising judicial decisions, one could argue that politicians are revealing clear evidence of their own incompetence.

As for the Italian judiciary being a bunch of commies, look, did you see that pig flying past the blue moon?  Sorry, my mistake, it wasn’t a pig, it was a chicken with a nice set of gnashers (teeth).  Or maybe it was a pink elephant….

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