The anniversary is easy to remember, given that the law itself indicates the date on which it was promulgated: 62 years ago legalized prostitution was abolished in Italy, thanks to the law of 20 February 1958, n. 75, known to history as the Merlin Law, from the name of the promoter and first signatory of the law, the socialist senator Lina Merlin. This historic reform, which is still in force in our country, has ordered the closure of houses of tolerance (the so-called "closed houses") and introduced the crimes of exploitation and aiding and abetting prostitution. However, prostitution itself, voluntary and carried out by adult and unexploited women and men, remained legal in Italy (and still is), as it is considered part of the individual choices guaranteed by the Constitution, as an expression of inviolable personal freedom (article 2 and article 13).
Senator Merlin's project became law after a long battle and a very long parliamentary process (the first bill was presented in 1948, the final approval took place when Merlin had reached the venerable age of 70) and she was inspired by the French activist and former prostitute Marthe Richard, under whose urging the brothels in France were closed in 1946. Furthermore, the Merlin Law incorporates the principles of the "Convention for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings and the Exploitation of Prostitution", adopted by the United Nations General Assembly with resolution 317 (IV) of 2 December 1949. However, the choice made and continues to still discuss, given that in fact prostitution still exists and that by closing the houses of tolerance a form of regulation of the phenomenon has somehow failed.
In the political debate, among the opposing voices, emerged in particular that of the liberal intellectual Benedetto Croce, who argued that any evil there might be in brothels was in any case less than if they had been abolished: "Eliminating brothels would not destroy the evil they represent, but the good with which that evil is contained, surrounded and attenuated would be destroyed". Pietro Nenni himself, Senator Merlin's party mate, expressed perplexity about the new law. Eventually, however, the reform passed with the favorable vote of socialists, communists, republicans, Christian democrats and some social democrats, while against it were liberals, radicals, MSIs, monarchists, the majority of the social democrats and some dissidents of the PSI.
The Merlin Law therefore established, within six months of its entry into force, the closure of brothels, the abolition of the regulation of prostitution in Italy and the introduction of a series of crimes aimed at combating the exploitation of prostitution of others. The law prescribed also the establishment of a women's police force, which from then on would deal with the prevention and repression of crimes against morality (also sanctioned by the Merlin law itself as "libertinage") and the fight against juvenile delinquency.
