“An ad hoc regulation is needed on external competition”, says Nordio. “The separation of careers? will happen”

Carlo Nordio, interviewed by Virginia Piccolillo in the Corriere della Sera, clarifies why he wants to deal with the accusation of external competition in a mafia association. “Between 2002 and 2006 I chaired the Commission for the reform of the penal code”, says the Minister of Justice, “with authoritative academics, magistrates and lawyers, and I studied everything that had been written on the subject. Virtually unanimously the Commission concluded that the external competition had to be typified with an ad hoc regulationbecause it does not exist as an autonomous case in the code, but is the result of a jurisprudential interpretation that combines article 110, on competition, with 416 on association. And this has led to extreme application uncertainty. So much so that the Cassation has changed its address several times, and is still struggling to find a convincing definition“.

The external competition in mafia association

“Voices to introduce a typical rule are nearly universal in the academic and forensic world,” adds Nordio. “I cite for all Professor Giovanni Fiandaca, on whose texts two generations of jurists have trained, who strongly hopes for a specific formulation of this crime”, continues Nordio. The opposition and some magistrates, however, are asking to keep this instrument. Nordio’s proposal to reformulate the external competition met with the dry “no” of the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano (“it’s not a priority”) which is paired with the position of Chiara Colosimo, president of the Anti-Mafia commission. “I’m not surprised – says Nordio – that broadsides arrive from the opposition: la politique n’a pas d’entrailles. And not even from the most critical press, which I always read with benevolent indulgence. I’m surprised they come from magistratesthat as legal experts they should know that the external competition is now, to quote Churchill, an enigma inside a riddle wrapped in a mystery”.

And to those who dispute that this would favor organized crime, the minister replies: “My interpretation is even stricter, because even those who are not organic to the mafia, if their task is facilitated, are mafia to all intents and purposes. So much so that when I directed the investigation into the Venetian Br in the 1980s we always contested the crime of association even against those who lent themselves to simple contact, from medical aid to leafleting, and we had them all convicted as belonging to the armed gang. – concludes – The concept of external competition is an oxymoron: either one is external, and therefore one is not a competitor, or one is a competitor, and therefore one is not external. If these topics were approached with a cool and calm mind, and not with sterile polemics, we would find a solution. Like the formulation proposed by Giuliano Pisapia: write a very simple and very clear ad hoc rule“.

Separation of careers

“The separation of careers is consubstantial to the accusatory process wanted by Vassalli, a highly decorated anti-fascist partisan, socialist and guarantor. Unfortunately, as I said, it was implemented only halfway”, explains the minister. “It exists throughout the Anglo-Saxon world, e in no way undermines the independence of the prosecutorial judiciary. However, it requires a constitutional review, and therefore the path is longer. However it is part of the government program, and will be implemented“.

“Separation of careers also means the discretion of prosecution and the power of the prosecutor to retract it. All things that the Constitution does not allow at the moment. But if they were implemented they would avoid at least thirty per cent of the processes that prove to be useless and harmful and slow down the celebration of the most important ones and therefore justice would be faster”, adds Nordio.

Clash of the judiciary government

“After the controversies arising from my first criticisms on the interference of the judiciary on the bill before having read the text, I received the representatives of the ANM. It was an extremely cordial meeting from a personal point of view, even if there are different ideas on the reforms to be made”, says Nordio. “We focused more on shared themes, such as the efficiency of justice and the implementation of resources, than on those where we think differently”. And he adds: “The confrontation will continue. I was a magistrate for forty years, and I still feel like one“

Delmastro case

With regard to the forced indictment of the Undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro delle Vedove, Minister Nordio states that “the forced indictment, regardless of the current case, I have criticized for 25 years: it is a remnant of the old codewhen there was the investigating judge, inserted in the new Vassalli for a compromise: the legislator did not have the courage to fully implement the accusatory system, where the prosecutor is a monopolist and arbiter of criminal action”.