DI STEFANO ZOCCALI
Abstract –Confiscation in the absence of conviction has in recent years been the subject of attention from both doctrine and from national and supranational jurisprudence. In particular, the major problems mainly concerned a specific type of confiscation envisaged by the Italian legislator, that is urban planning for the crime of illegal housing development. This elaborate, through a preliminary reconstruction of the jurisprudential evolution of the ECtHR in this matter, focuses subsequently on the new procedural and substantial repercussions within the national legal system of the judgement G.I.E.M. c. Italy, paying particular attention to the question concerning the possibility of referring the assessment of the proportionality of the confiscation to the trial judge. In this way, it was possible to briefly analyze the institution of the limitation and reflect on future perspectives on confiscation, especially in consideration of the recent interventions made by the Italian legislator and the principles of supranational derivation.
Keywords – European Court of Human Rights, Court of Cassation, confiscation, limitation, Article 7 ECHR, Article 578 bis c.p.p.