Finding a cure or simply relieving symptoms? The case of the Italian Supreme Court

For more than 20 years the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) has been in a state of crisis because of the high number of cases it must review and the paucity of resources, both human and material, allocated for the examination of each appeal. The national legislator has intervened several times in the last 10 years to introduce a sort of petition screening and ‘filter’ tool to basically limit the decision in a public hearing to questions of law relating to important individual values only and, at the same time, divert all other petitions to a simplified decision by way of chamber proceedings. Nonetheless, the crisis the court faces remains serious, and a more courageous reform—perhaps even one which would eliminate the right to ‘unconditional’ access to the court guaranteed by the Italian Constitution—is clearly needed.