The Joint Sections of the Italian Court of Cassation recognised the direct applicability of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in the Italian legal system.
Juris Hominis, the Italian Section of the ICJ, welcomes this resolution of the conflict between the Italian Court of Cassation and the European Court of Human Rights.
This opening from the Italian Court of Cassation had been anticipated on 12 January 2004 at the inauguration of the judicial year by Mr Francesco Favara, Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court of Cassation. On that occasion, he said that: “if we became part of Europe, we cannot ignore the Union’s jurisprudence. It is also necessary to consider that national judges are the first guarantors of human rights, as it is required by the subsidiarity relationship which exists between the national and European jurisdiction….”.
The first direct effect of such sentences of the Court of Cassation will be that it will no longer be possible to appeal directly those sentences issued by the Appeal Courts concerning the reparation of damages due to unreasonable duration of trials to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. From 26 January 2004 these sentences can be appealed to the Court of Cassation according to Article 360 of the Code of Civil Procedure. As a result the European Court of Human Rights should declare inadmissible those complaints which have not exhausted this domestic remedy.