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Italian report 2

REPORT ON


Implementation of the EC Recommendation (2010)12

about Judges in the member states of EU

Italy

 

Infringements of the status, independence and security of tenure for judges

There no significant infringements to report.

In fact,

 the Regional Administrative Tribunals’ judges are all selected by means of a competitive examination ;

 the judge may be transferred on demand ; the application form is examined by the Council of Presidency for the administrative Justice as soon as a free work seat is available ;

 the Council of Presidency for the administrative Justice in an independent judicial self-governance body, which is made up of the President of the Council of State, 4 external members appointed by the Parliament and 10 members elected among the judges ;

 the judge may be transferred officially in case of objective incompatibility with the environment ;

 he/she may be removed only as a disciplinary decision and the term of judicial appointment is for life.

Cuts in the remuneration of judges, or making remuneration dependant on performance

The law provides for automatic salary increases, calculated on the average salary increases of all public servants. It is accompanied by a special pay for judges and annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Because of the financial crisis, in 2010, the Parliament blocked all increases and cut the special pay, but the judgment n° 223/2012 of the Constitutional Court has declared the law (namely, decreto-legge n° 78/2010) unconstitutional (http://www.cortecostituzionale.it/actionPronuncia.do).

 

 

Absence of objective criteria for evaluating judicial work

Judicial work is evaluated for the promotions of the judges by the Council of Presidency for administrative Justice ; it appreciates above all the seniority and then the quality of service. The exam of the quality of service and of eventual texts on juridical topics as well as of the organizational skills is deeper in the cases of moving of a judge from T.A.R. to the Council of State and of attribution of tasks as president of chamber, president of T.A.R. and president of the Council of State. Since now the criteria have been not specific but quite objective. More specific criteria are provided only for the evaluation of the quantity and timing of work.

No adequate resources allocated to the courts

The number of administrative judges in my country amounts to 525, among which about 100 work at the Council of State.
By comparing it to the total amount of the State budget, the total amount of money spent to ensure the functioning of administrative justice results only about 0,032% of the State expenditure.
As a consequence, all the available means (structures, buildings, human resources) are inadequate to the need.
Furthermore there are no legal assistants, but only clerks and secretaries in offices.
The number of the whole staff (including clerks, secretaries …) working for the administrative jurisdictions amounts to about 900 ; therefore the resulting average number is less than 1 administrative judge/2 assistants.
The recent cuts in public expenditure have especially involved the funds for judicial training ; they are jeopardizing our effort to improve the knowledge of the EU’s law, too.
Only the data processing tools are satisfying at the moment.