5. The Judicial System: The Delivery of Justice under the Separation of Powers

The rise of the judiciary as an important political component in Italy’s constitutional system is a relatively new phenomenon. During most of the First Republic the judicial branch was of little concern aside from the need to complete the rebuilding of the judicial system with the creation of the Constitutional Court in 1955 and the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, the self-governing body of the judicial branch. Otherwise, the judiciary had remained out of the public spotlight for a considerable number of years. All of that changed in the 1970s as the judicial branch was thrust into the front lines of the struggle to gain control over the terrorist organizations that had emerged on the heels of the 1968–1969 student and workers movements. Starting in 1969, judges were shot dead or kidnapped on a regular basis by terrorist organizations. A few years later the attention of the judicial branch was turned towards the Mafia, and here once again the judges were on the front lines in the struggle to bring the Mafiosi to justice. The judicial system again assumed a central role in the Italian political system in 1992 when the Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) investigation began in earnest to investigate the corruption and bribes engaged in by the leaders of the country’s ruling parties—particularly the PSI and the DC (Buffachi, 1996). Within two years the old system of power and political parties that had ruled the First Republic collapsed, and a new system came into existence.