Criminal Law (Vatican City)

In the law of Vatican City, criminal law is the set of norms that regulate the conditions and the procedure according to which a person is to be punished and executed. According to Art. 22 of the Lateran Treaties , the Italian state assumes, at the request of the Vatican, criminal prosecution, criminal proceedings and the execution of sentences at the expense of the Vatican state.

Legal sources

The most important legal source of criminal law is the codice Zanardelli from 1889, which was replaced in Italy by the fascists with the codice Rocco since 1930 . In Vatican City, it has been in force since the Lateran Treaty of 1929 and has only seen minor changes since then, for example in the area of drug crime.

death penalty

Analogous to the provisions on the murder of the Italian king, the death penalty for the murder of the Pope within the Vatican was from the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty . It has never been imposed since the state of Vatican City came into being. Pope Paul VI finally abolished the death penalty in 1969.

homosexuality

In Vatican City there are no criminal laws against homosexual acts, no legal regulation against discrimination based on sexual orientation and no legal recognition of same-sex civil partnerships or same-sex marriages . This is due to the special composition of the population of Vatican City, which differs from the increased population in other countries and consists in the majority of adult, celibate people. The age of consent in Vatican City is 18 years, there are exceptions for married young people.

Individual evidence

^ Lambda Legal Committee : Comparative Law ( Memento from October 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), as of August 29, 2005
↑ Legge N. VIII: Norme complementari in materia penale, July 11, 2013 (see Art. 8 para. 4 in conjunction with Art. 4 letter a; for married young people see Art. 8 para. 5) . Retrieved March 15, 2017.

literature

Francesco Clementi: Città del Vaticano . Il Mulino, 2009, ISBN 978-88-15-13151-5 ( table of contents [PDF]).
Giuseppe Dalla Torre : L'ordinamento giudiziario . In: Barbara Jatta (Ed.): 1929–2009. Ottanta anni dello Stato della Città del Vaticano . S. 135 ff .

[1] Lambda Legal Committee : Comparative Law ( Memento from October 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), as of August 29, 2005

[2] Legge N. VIII: Norme complementari in materia penale, July 11, 2013 (see Art. 8 para. 4 in conjunction with Art. 4 letter a; for married young people see Art. 8 para. 5) . Retrieved March 15, 2017.