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Harm, Offence and Offesa in the English and the Italian Criminal Law. For a Constitutionalisation of a Unitary Principle of Harm in the English Legal System, also as a Criterion of Judicial Interpretation

Pasculli, Lorenzo; (2016) Harm, Offence and Offesa in the English and the Italian Criminal Law. For a Constitutionalisation of a Unitary Principle of Harm in the English Legal System, also as a Criterion of Judicial Interpretation. Diritto Penale XXI Secolo , 2 pp. 302-349. Green open access

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Abstract

Despite its liberal tradition, the English law is still far from enforcing the harm principle as a fundamental principle of criminal law. On the one hand, the legislator often criminalises harmless behaviours; on the other hand, courts still seek to enforce morality through criminal law. A new perspective comes from the Italian doctrine of the principio di offensività (literally, principle of harmfulness), in its two-fold dimension of criterion of criminalisation and criterion of judicial interpretation-application. Such principle had a considerable impact on Italian law, to the extent that the Constitutional Court recognised it as a constitutionalised principle of criminal law. This article assesses the possibility of exporting the Italian constitutional oriented approach to the English legal framework, in the attempt of finding some legal and constitutional foundations for the harm principle. / Nonostante la sua tradizione liberale, il diritto inglese è ancora lontano dall’applicare l’harm principle quale principio fondamentale del diritto penale. Per un verso, il legislatore spesso incrimina condotte inoffensive; per altro verso, le corti ancora si servono del diritto penale per reprimere l’immoralità. Una nuova prospettiva proviene dal principio italiano di offensività, nella sua duplice dimensione di criterio legislativo e criterio di interpretazione-applicazione giudiziaria. Tale principio ha avuto un impatto considerevole sul diritto italiano, al punto che la Corte Costituzionale lo ha riconosciuto quale principio costituzionalizzato di diritto penale. Questo articolo valuta la possibilità di importare l’approccio costituzionalmente orientato italiano nel quadro giuridico inglese, nel tentativo di trovare un qualche fondamento normativo e costituzionale all’harm principle.

Type: Article
Title: Harm, Offence and Offesa in the English and the Italian Criminal Law. For a Constitutionalisation of a Unitary Principle of Harm in the English Legal System, also as a Criterion of Judicial Interpretation
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.edizioniesi.it/pubblicazioni/riviste/d...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Harm offence, offensività, legal good, constitutionally oriented theory / Harm, offence, offensività, bene giuridico, teoria costituzionalmente orientata
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Security and Crime Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155776
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