Abbreviated trial and life imprisonment: between control of constitutionality and legislative discretion. Note to Constitutional Court no. 260 of 2020

Abstract

In the Italian criminal system, the relationship between summary proceedings and life imprisonment is complex and characterized by the alternation between regulations that admit the compatibility between them and others that, instead, exclude it. The paper analyzes the Italian Constitutional Court judgment no. 260/2020 about the constitutional legitimacy of art. 438 paragraph 1 bis c.p.p. which (re)introduces the denial of the possibility to opt for summary proceedings when crimes are punished with life imprisonment. Indeed, the main point of the decision concerns the conformity with the constitutional principle of equality (ex art. 3 Cost.) of that provision. On that occasion, the Court addressed an issue on which it had already expressed its view and, in line with the previous rulings, it confirms the constitutional legitimacy of the foreclosure of access to the alternative proceedings for crimes punished with life imprisonment.