Giuliano Vassalli

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Giuliano Vassalli (born April 25, 1915 in Perugia , Province of Perugia , † October 21, 2009 in Rome ) was an Italian lawyer and politician of the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI), which, among other things, was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei deputati ) and the Senate ( Senato della Repubblica ), Minister of Justice of Italy as well as judge and President of the Constitutional Court ( Corte Costituzionale ).

Life

Study and resistance to fascism

Giuliano Vassalli, whose father Filippo Vassalli was Professor of Civil Law and Roman Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of La Sapienza in Rome between 1944 and his death in 1955 , also studied law at the University of La Sapienza after attending school and was a member of the fascist student organization Gruppo Universitario Fascista (GUF). In 1936 he completed his studies with the professor of criminal law , Arturo Rocco .

During the Second World War he was involved in the resistance against the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and on September 8, 1943 he joined the Resistance . Between October 1943 and January 1944 Vassalli was a member of the Central Military Council of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN) and as such organized the escape of Sandro Pertini and Giuseppe Saragat from the Regina Coeli prison in Rome in January 1944 .

In April 1944 he was finally arrested himself and suffered torture by the SS in Via Tasso prison in Rome . Through the intervention of Pope Pius XII. he was released on June 4, 1944.

University professor, local politician and member of parliament

After the Second World War, he initially worked as a lawyer before becoming professor of criminal law and criminal procedure law at the University of Urbino . He then took on professorships in criminal law and criminal procedural law at the University of Pavia , the University of Padua , the University of Genoa and the University of Naples , before finally accepting the chair in these areas of law at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. There he taught intermittently until his retirement in 1990.

In 1962 he began his political career in local politics when he was elected a member of the City Council of Rome, where he was also chairman of the parliamentary group of the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) until 1966 .

On June 1, 1968, he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the PSI and was a member of the Chamber of Deputies as a representative of the Roma constituency for a legislative period until May 24, 1972. During this period he was also chairman of the Commission for the Review of Legal Admission between June 1969 and May 1972.

After leaving the Camera dei deputati, he resumed his work as a professor of criminal law and criminal procedural law at La Sapienza University.

Senator and Minister of Justice

On June 26, 1983, Vassalli was elected to the PSI as a member of the Senato della Repubblica and was a member of this until the end of the ninth legislative period on July 1, 1987. After initially being chairman of the Standing Committee on Justice between August 1983 and October 1986, he became chairman of the PSI parliamentary group in the Senate in August 1986 and held this position until July 1987.

After leaving the Senate, Vassalli was appointed Minister of Justice of Italy by Prime Minister Giovanni Goria on July 28, 1987 . He also held this office in the following government of Ciriaco De Mita and in the sixth and seventh cabinet of Giulio Andreotti until February 2, 1991. During this time he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique in 1988 .

Judge and President of the Constitutional Court and presidential candidate

After Vassalli left the government, he was appointed on February 13, 1991 by President Francesco Cossiga for a nine-year term as judge at the Italian Constitutional Court , the Corte Costituzionale .

In 1992 he himself was a PSI candidate for the office of President, but withdrew his candidacy after the fourteenth ballot in favor of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , the candidate of the Democrazia Cristiana (DC), who finally voted in the 16th ballot with a majority of 672 Votes was elected President of the Republic.

On November 11, 1999, he succeeded Renato Granata as President of the Constitutional Court and held this office until the end of his nine-year term three months later on February 13, 2000.

honors and awards

In 1982 Vassalli became a corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei , and in 1990 socio nazionale . For his long service to justice and politics in Italy, Vassalli has received several awards and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and was awarded the Grand Cross ( Cavaliere di Gran Croce ) of this order in 1965 as a Grand Officer ( Grande Ufficiale ) and in 1966 . In addition, he was awarded the Medal of Merit for Culture and Fine Arts ( Medaglia ai Benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte ) in 1980 . On January 24, 2002, the University of Bologna finally awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Publications

  • La confisca dei beni: storia recente e profili dommatici , Padua, 1951
  • Gian Domenico Pisapia, Il segreto istruttorio nel processo penale , Milan 1960
  • Dizionario di diritto e procedura penale , Milan 1986
  • La giustizia internazionale penale: studi , Milan 1995
  • La legge penale e la sua interpretazione, il reato e la responsabilità penale, le pene e le misure di sicurezza , Milan 1997
  • Il Codice penale e la sua riforma; criminologia, politica criminale e legislazione straniera; giuristi del passato , Milan 1997
  • Formula di Radbruch e diritto penale: note sulla punizione dei delitti di Stato nella Germania postnazista e nella Germania postcomunista , Milan 2001

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vassalli, Giuliano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician (PSI), member of the Camera dei deputati and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Perugia
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2009
Place of death Rome