OVERVIEW

The subject of Criminal Procedural Law I is the study of procedural models, national and supranational sources, general principles, with particular regard to constitutional principles, subjects, acts and the subject of evidence and precautionary measures, as well as the fundamentals of the dynamics of criminal proceedings. Specific in-depth study will be devoted to case studies, legal writing and the use of databases.

The teaching is essential for all students who intend to qualify for the legal profession or enter a career in the judiciary in the future.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Description of Italian criminal law system. Criminal proceedings: general principles, subjects, documents and records. Evidence and limitations of freedom.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching of Criminal Procedure Law I aims to provide students with basic notions and in-depth case law in the field of Criminal Procedure with specific reference to the following topics:

The procedural models;
The sources of criminal procedural law;
The constitutional discipline on criminal procedural law;
The subjects;
The forms and acts with particular attention to the hypotheses of invalidity;
The evidence;
The precautionary measures;
The judicial organisation;
The judicial statistics;
The trial office.

The course also aims to initiate students:

into the use of one or more legal databases for the retrieval of regulatory sources, case law and doctrinal materials;
into the use of telematic trial tools;
into the analysis of concise legal cases to develop their argumentative skills;
into the production of summary texts (such as, for example, defence counsel appointments and case law maxims).
These activities are part of a training programme aimed at providing each student with skills useful for developing the ability to interpret and apply the law, required by the world of the professions.

Individual study, attendance and participation in the proposed training activities will enable the student to:

Understand and remember the characteristics of traditional procedural models;
Understand and remember the sources of criminal procedural law;
Understand, remember and apply the constitutional principles in criminal procedural matters, recognising their implementation in ordinary procedural legislation or its possible frictions with them;
Understand, remember and apply the basic principles of the dynamics of criminal proceedings;
Identify the different types of acts;
Distinguish the different subjects of proceedings as well as understand and apply the discipline governing their presence within it;
Identify the different forms of invalidity of acts as well as understand, interpret and apply the relevant regulatory discipline;
Distinguish between the different types of precautionary measures, identify the steps of the relative procedure, understand, interpret and apply the relative regulatory discipline;
Identify, understand and distinguish the means of evidence and the means of searching for evidence;
Read and critically examine, with independent judgement, scientific articles in the field of criminal procedural law, texts of judgments of the courts of merit, legitimacy, the Constitutional Court and European judgments relating to procedural-criminal issues;
Acquire appropriate technical legal language and use it to express oneself correctly;
Acquire the basics of judicial statistics in the field of criminal procedure law;
Acquire the basics of writing in the field of criminal procedure law;
Understand and remember the functioning of the institution of the trial office in the field of criminal procedure law.

TEACHING METHODS

The course consists of lectures, for a total of 54 hours (equal to 9 CFU), during which the functions, models and fundamental principles of the criminal trial will be introduced.

In the implementation of intervention line 4 of the PON Next Generation UPP project (D19J22000240006), in which the lecturer participated, the following experiential teaching models will be experimented

a) analysis of acts of criminal proceedings;

b) use of legal databases;

c) case studies, also with the direct participation of students;

d) participation in hearings;

e) writing short legal texts.

The active participation of students is encouraged through the preparation of written self-assessment tests in relation to the various parts of the programme, both in multiple-choice mode and through the drafting of opinions in relation to concrete cases. These self-assessment tests may be presented and discussed in the classroom together with the lecturer.

The slides used in the lecture, texts of judgments of particular relevance, texts of reform legislation and in-depth material on which to engage in collective discussion will be posted on Aulaweb.

Occasionally, scholars, prosecutors, judges and lawyers may be invited to lecture on topics of particular interest.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The historical and cultural premises 

The sources of criminal procedural law 

The subjects of the trial (the judge; the public prosecutor; the judicial police; the defendant; the defence counsel; the person offended by the offence; the possible parties) 

Outlines of judicial statistics in criminal law (flows, duration of proceedings, rudiments of judicial organisation)

The criminal trial office

The general theory of the trial (the criminal procedural act and invalidity; general theory of evidence; evidentiary vocabulary means of proof and means of searching for evidence)

Precautionary measures (introduction; types of precautionary measures; prerequisites for the application of measures; the procedure for the application of measures; precautionary appeals)

Fundamentals of the dynamics of criminal proceedings

Fundamentals of writing in criminal proceedings

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

As a supporting text, with regard to the parts covered in the lecture, we recommend:

TONINI and CONTI, Manual of Criminal Procedure, latest ed., Giuffrè, parts one and two.

The preparation must be supplemented with the materials published on Aulaweb and by consulting an up-to-date Code of Criminal Procedure.

Textbooks and possible reading materials for non-attending students:

TONINI and CONTI, Manual of Criminal Procedure, latest ed., Giuffrè, parts one and two.

GIOSTRA, Prima lezione sulla giustizia penale, Laterza, latest edition.

The preparation must be supplemented with the materials published on Aulaweb and with the consultation of an updated Code of Criminal Procedure.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

II semester

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination is oral. As a rule, the student is asked three questions on different topics in order to extend the examination to the different parts of the syllabus.

The duration of the oral examination is approximately twenty minutes.

In the overall assessment of the examination, the teacher takes into account active participation in the lessons and the performance and presentation of the self-assessment tests administered during the course.

For students with DSA or disability certification, the exam is conducted in accordance with the University's ‘Guidelines for requesting services, compensatory instruments and/or dispensatory measures and other aids’, which can be consulted at the following link: https://unige.it/sites/unige.it/files/2024-05/Linee%20guida%20per%20la%20richiesta%20di%20servizi%2C%20di%20st

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam aims to verify the student's actual knowledge and acquisition of the theoretical and practical notions relating to the topics covered in the syllabus.

By means of general theoretical questions it will be verified whether the student is able to:

identify and define legal concepts using appropriate technical language;
identify, distinguish, know, understand and apply, with a critical spirit and autonomy of judgement, both the sources of criminal procedural law, national or supranational, and the texts of some fundamental judgments, knowledge of which is indispensable for a complete overview of the topics covered by the programme;
master the main concepts of judicial statistics;
express himself using appropriate technical language.