La giustizia riparativa tra lo stato di diritto ottocentesco e lo stato costituzionale di diritto
DI MARIA LUDOVICA LAGALLA
ABSTRACT – This essay intends to describe how restorative justice constitutes a modality of response to criminal offenses that implies a juridical culture, a conception of law and a characterisation of power that are opposite of or, more prudently, very distant from, those of the nineteenth-century rule of law. Also, I explain the reasons why the legal-cultural environment of the constitutional rule of law represents the elective ground for the proliferation of the elements characterising restorative justice. Finally, I explore the possibility of considering restorative justice as a necessary outcome of contemporary constitutionalism. The above-mentioned aspects will be treated by comparing the main features and explanatory theories of law of the nineteenth-century rule of law and those of the constitutional rule of law (with exclusive reference to continental European states) and examining, each time, their distance and/or proximity with respect to the core elements of restorative justice, as previously identified.
KEYWORDS – Restorative Justice – Nineteenth-century Rule of Law – Constitutional Rule of Law – Contemporary Constitutionalism