Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/282

 ITALY

238

ITALY

The High Courts of Appeal are the supreme custo- dians of the law and of judicial functions, and there- fore their jurisdiction is limited to matters of law, determining only the question of legal error on the part of inferior courts, confirming the sentence, if such error l:>e not found, or, on the contrary, annulling the sentence and ordering the rehearing of the case by another judge. If the new judge does not observe the principles of law laid down by the High Court of Appeal, the defeated party may again appeal to a competent High Court of Appeal, which will there- upon decide on the merits of the case, such decision to be final. Contrary to the functions of the other High Courts of Appeal, which are established respec- tively at Turin, Florence, Naples, and Palermo, that of Rome is final in criminal, in revenue, and in eccle- siastical matters. According to statistics of 1904, published in 1908, civil proceedings were instituted in 1,900,856 cases, an average of 57 per cent of the popu- lation, the greater number of which originated m the southern provinces; the criminal statistics of the year show 804,683 inilictments, 523,206 for felony and 281,477 for misdemeanours. The number of convic- tions, which in 1881 was 305,593, was increased by 24-29 per cent to 379,820 in 1904. Crimes of vio- lence, resistance to authorities, commercial dishon- esty, crimes against public and private morality, and criminality among juveniles have increased. All sug- gest remedies for this condition of things, ignoring, either through stupidity or malice, the fact that the only remedy consists in religious education.

(6) Administrative Departments. — The ministriesare the superior directing offices of the Italian admin- istration at the capital; each one of them is under a minister assisted by a sub-secretary of state; they are eleven in number, and are known as Ministers of the Interior, of Foreign Affairs, of Finance, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of Clemency, of Justice and of Religious Worship, of Public Works, of Agri- culture, of Industry and Commerce, and of Public Education. There is a Council of State, the function of which is to advise the Government ; it is a supreme assembly whose duty it is, besides that of administra- tive justice, to give the administration "opinions", which are called "obligatory" in those cases in which the law obliges the minister to seek such opinions; and in these cases, if the Council be not consulted, the administrative act is unconstitutional and legally void. Another supreme assembly, exercising control over the public administration, is the ("ourt of Ac- counts; its chief functions are to examine all de- crees, from the standpoint of their legality, and thereafter to affix to such decrees its approval, after which they become executive, to control and audit all mcome and expenditure, to represent the .State in all litigation over public funds or other securities of the State or for which the State is liable, and over those salaried officials guilty of peculation or mal- administration of public funds.

(7) Political Divisionf:. — The kingdom is divided into 69 provinces, 284 departments, 1805 boroughs, and 8290 communes. The province and the commune are self-governing entities, having a legal personality, exercising their activity in their own interest and in- directly in the interest of the State; they are, more- over, territorial organs of the national administration. On the other hand, the district is a hierarchical divi- sion of the province, while the borough is a division of the large communes or an aggregation of small ones and is an electoral territory, and in some measure a judicial and fiscal one. Although the commune is a natural division, like the Italian province, it is a crea- tion of the Italian law. In the province, which is re- garded as the local arm of governmental arlministra- tion, the State exercises its functions through a pre- fect, who represents the central executive power and is assisted by a prefectoral council and an office of his

own. Under him are the sub-prefects at the capitals of districts, the executive and governmental offices, and the public charities. In the commune the State exercises its functions through a syndic, who, there- fore, is a government officer. The province and the commune have deliberative bodies that are self- governing and are called respectively provincial coun- cil and communal council; they consist of a member- ship that varies in numbers according to population, there being from sixty members to twenty members in the provincial councils, and from eighty to fif- teen in the communal council, all of whom are elected by the people. The executive branch of the province is the deputation, consisting of from ten to six mem- bers, according to population, while that of the com- mune is composed of the syndic and the communal board, which consists of from ten to two members called assessors. All of these bodies are drawn from their respective councils. The prefect, representing the State, exercises juridic control over all the acts of the provincial council, of the communal council, of the dep- utation, and of the boards; and if they be not accord- ing to law, he annuls them. By administrative control, a semi-elective assembl}', called provincial board, over which the prefect presides, examines, for its approval, all of those acts of the above bodies that are beyond those of normal administration, as are the alienation or the hypothecation of capital, expenses that are binding upon the budget for more than five years, regulations, etc. Finally, for weighty reasons of pub- lic order or because of maladministration, the Govern- ment may dissolve the communal or the provincial councils and name, to replace them, a commissary for the commune, and a commission for the province, for the time required to reconstruct the councils.

(8) Administration of Justice. — In Italy, conform- ably with the principle of iimim jvs, vna jurisdictio, all differences between the citizen, the self-governing pohtical divisions of the country, and the State are re- ferred to the judicial power, whether it be a question of civil or of political rights; but controversies con- cerning private interests or damage through a given act of the Government are referred to two administrative bodies which have jurisdiction in litigation of this nature; they are the administrative board, in each province, and the Council of State (sections 4 and 5). The former determines the right and wrong, in the first instance, of cases of illegality on the part of provincial or of communal administrators or of those of corpora- tions, in acts that may be done by those officials to the detriment of private persons or of corporations in cases that are enumerated by the law. The Council of State judges in cases of appeal from the decisions of the pro- vincial administrative boards (section 5) ; moreover it exercises jurisdiction alone in cases of incompe- tency, of abuse of power, or of violation of the law by a deliberating administrative body, except in regard to acts of government done in the exercise of political power (section 4). By this novel institution, which the executive power has borrowed from the judicial, the Staatsrecht has been established in Italy. In the not remote possibility of conflict between the judicial and the executive powers, the Court of Cassation of Rome, which is the supreme organ of the judicial branch of government, has the deciding power. Finally, for the protection of the property of the commune, under certain conditions, the actio popu- laris procuratoria may be exercised by any taxpayer, as actio suppletiva, to supplement the work of the commvmal authorities, or as nrlio correctivn, in pursu- ance of a right of the comnuuie against its function- aries; but the actio pnptdnrix. or motion on behalf of the people, must be made before the usual magistrate, whether criminal or civil, excluding, however, the ad- ministrative magistrate.

(9) Finance. — The new Kingdom of Italy not only inherited the financial burdens of the former Italian