The Council of Ministers approved the Justice Reform. After a long day in which the break with the Five Stars was feared, Prime Minister Draghi and the Keeper of the Seals Marta Cartabia found a compromise that ended up making everyone agree. The single amendment to the reform, already under discussion in Parliament, will therefore be presented with the consent of the majority, despite the backsliding of the Contian wing of the M5S. In fact, the approach of the previous Bonafede reform is thus overcome, albeit with some counterweights that leave the statute of limitations open (but delimited within precise boundaries) for the most serious crimes, including corruption. But let's see, in summary, the key points of the reform.
JUSTICE REFORM, THE PRESCRIPTION CHANGES
The new formulation keeps the stop to the prescription on Appeal and in Cassation, but also provides for a declaration of inadmissibility if a time limit is exceeded, which in appeal is two years and in cassation of one.
This threshold rises respectively to three years and 18 months for some particularly serious crimes, including corruption and other crimes against the public administration.
There is also one suspension of terms due to the impossibility of proceeding which follows those to interrupt the course of the prescription.
Another corrective concerns then the civil effects of convictions in the first degree, which remain unaffected even if in the subsequent degrees the eligibility is declared.
All these adjustments have served to overcome the resistance of the 5 Star Movement, who will now have to accept seeing the stop to the trials that two years ago went out the door with the Bonafede reform come back through the window.
The duration of trials is the most important aspect of the justice reform, without which our country would lose the right to European aid from the Recovery Fund.
Community funds will be used to ensure that the proceedings are concluded without traps. Among the main investments, are planned 16.500 new hires to set up the "process offices", which should speed up the procedures.
JUSTICE REFORM, RETRIAL AND TRIAL
But the Cartabia reform does not only intervene on the timing of proceedings. Another important new feature is the possibility to ask and order referral to trial only if the prosecution has collected elements that suggest a "reasonable probability of conviction". The new formulation serves to reduce the number of processes: in 40% of the proceedings it ends with an acquittal, a level that is too high and expensive.
Finally, there are new rules on restorative justice (the voluntary paths to arrive at a reconciliation between victims and perpetrators) and the extension of the possibility of tested for defendants and convicts who lend themselves to "reparation" projects.
