Il caso Contrada: l’interpretazione della Corte EDU era prevedibile? di Valentina Amantea
Abstract- The paper, retracing the most important stages of the “Contrada” judicial case, focuses on a detailed analysis of European Court of Human Rights’ judgment dated 14 April 2015, case Contrada v. Italy, appl.n. 66655/13, to highlight its lights and shadows. Said judgment, whose argument, moreover, is rather questionable (also considering the previous judgments of the European Court itself on the issue of Article 7 ECHR), punishes our State for condemning Bruno Contrada for external participation in mafia-type association due to conduct carried out during the period prior to the date on which the Demitry judgment was delivered. The Demitry judgment itself regarded as dies a quo for the configurability of the crime concerned. In this way the Strasbourg Court applies the principle of legality, as a corollary of the non-retroactivity in malam partem, also to the case law, in order to avoid those phenomena that, in doctrine, are known as “retroactivity occult”, thus enhancing, as a criterial for the criminal charge, the principle of predictability of judicial interpretation.
Keywords – European Court of Human Rights, Article 7 ECHR, Principle of Legality, Predictability of judicial interpretation, External Partecipation in mafia association.