Gaetano Azzariti

Gaetano Azzariti (left) at a reception with Nicola Picella (1957)

Gaetano Azzariti (born March 23, 1881 in Naples , † January 5, 1961 in Rome ) was an Italian lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice and Chairman of the Italian Constitutional Court .

Life and professional activities

Gaetano Azzariti came from a middle-class family in Naples . His father and two of his brothers also became judges. In 1901, Gaetano Azzariti graduated from the University of Naples with a law degree . From 1904 he worked as a judge .

From 1920 (shortly before the end of the liberal era ) to 1949 (after the beginning of the Republic) he worked within the Legislative Office of the Ministry of Justice , which he headed from 1927 to 1949 - with only a short interruption after the fall of Mussolini . He played an outstanding - and to this day particularly controversial - role in the processing of the Italian racial laws . Then he became chairman of the "Racial Court" ( Tribunale della razza ).

After the fall of Mussolini on July 25, 1943, Azzariti was appointed Minister of Justice in the Badoglio government. He held this office until February 15, 1944. After the end of the war , he became a close associate of the new communist Justice Minister Palmiro Togliatti (1945-1946).

In 1951, Azzariti, who had become chairman of the Supreme Water Court in 1949, retired.

On December 3, 1955, President Giovanni Gronchi appointed him as judge of the newly established Constitutional Court, of which he was vice-chairman from April 6, 1957 until his death on January 5, 1961. With regard to his work as a constitutional judge, it should be mentioned in particular that, as rapporteur, he prepared the first judgment of the court, with which the new constitutional body explicitly claimed its competence to review the constitutionality of those laws that were passed before the entry into force of the Italian Constitution of 1947 have been adopted.

literature

• Fulco Lanchester:  AZZARITI, Gaetano. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 34:  Primo supplemento AC. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1988.

Web links

Commons : Gaetano Azzariti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Un antisemita alla suprema Corte. L'incredibile caso di Gaetano Azzariti , November 4, 2014, on: www.corriere.it.