Mattarella’s warning to the judiciary: “Prevent internal malpractice”

ROME. «Since its establishment, the Scuola Superiore has accompanied judges and prosecutors in their initial and ongoing training, taking care to develop high-quality courses, also in terms of judicial ethics. The Judiciary itself has demonstrated, even recently, that it is capable of acting – with determination and without timidity – against magistrates held responsible for serious crimes in the exercise of their functions. It should be dutifully remembered how much it would be preferable to prevent any form of internal malpractice, through a more careful exercise of supervisory duties, avoiding serious discredit that could fall on the judiciary and cast doubt on the complete fulfillment of institutional duties”.

The distinction between interpretation and application of rules
So Sergio Mattarella speaking Ceremony of inauguration of the headquarters of the Higher School of Magistrates in Castel Capuano. The President of the Republic underlined that “sometimes the legislator is late in regulating the protection of rights”, but “the response to justice requests commits the Judiciary to find solutions anchored exclusively in positive law”. For the head of state “the distinction of the dutiful interpretation and application of the rules must be clearly understood with respect to the claim to be able to create them to satisfy needs that cannot be met in the context of the judicial function, according to what is foreseen in our constitutional system” .

The stakes on language
Mattarella further explained that «the uniformity of decisions does not represent a limit to decision-making but constitutes a point of arrival, since it is aimed at promoting the predictability of decisions and, therefore, their comprehensibility. The use of appropriate and measured language also contributes to these necessary requisites».