Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/327

 THE GREEN BAG due perhaps in a great degree to the con struction of the civil courts under the Legge Civile. There are no juries. In stead the court is composed of a president and twp associate judges. In courts where the issue is the settlement of long and in tricate accounts there are commissioners whose office and duties are of a permanent nature. The office of judge is not a chance honor depending upon his popularity among voters, or his pull with the party in power, or his acquaintance with the governor of a state. The judiciary of Italy is open to all on the basis of qualification' and fitness. A man becomes a judge through a systematic course of training. Examinations are held every year for the positions at the foot of the lad der, and the young man, once entered upon this line of work, finds that his promotion is steady and dependent upon his qualifica tions. It is a separate department of the civil service. The young judge begins his career as a petty justice in the lowest civil court with a jurisdiction of suits up to twenty dollars, or as associate justice in a criminal court with jurisdiction over minor offenses. The next step is to the Pretura

with a jurisdiction up to three hundred dollars and also appellate power over the cases sent up from the lower court. After a certain period of years he then becomes one of the judges of the Tribunale or high est civil court of first resort. From this he may be appointed to the Court of Appeals or the Court of Cassatione, the highest court in Italy. In the Italian system a judge has always been on the bench from his youth, and as he probably entered the service from the university he has probably never prac tised as an advocate. The number of courts sitting in an Italian city is dependent upon the amount of busi ness usually conducted, and with an in crease of business the Minister of Internal Affairs must create new courts. A represen tative to the chamber told me to-day that any civil suit could be begun to-morrow and unless something extraordinary happened he could have judgment, appeal, and new judgment in six months or less. I believe that the absence of juries and the greater experience of the judges is after all the reason why an Italian court gets through so much more business than our own. ROME, ITALY, April, 1905.