Profilo della magistratura italiana: la Corte di Cassazione dal fascismo alla Repubblica

This paper examines the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, in the period between the rise of fascism and the beginning of the Republican era, with particular attention to the judges involved. The Supreme Court has mainly been analyzed with respect to its members, with the compilation of a biographical repertoire that traces the career, from their entry into the judicial career to their retirement. The period allowed to examine in depth the relationship between the judiciary and fascism, the conduct of judiciary itself during that period, and the next step, the purge from fascism. This historical period was chosen because of previous studies and collaborations in structured research, in particular the project “The purge of the judiciary to the fall of Fascism” under the Relevant National Interest Research Program (PRIN) 2006, “Judiciary and politics in the modern and contemporary State” (national scientific coordinator Guido Melis), and the project “The relationship between political power and judicial power: the purge of the judiciary in Italy and Sardinia, from fascism to democracy”, funded by the Sardinian Region (national scientific coordinator Mariarosa Cardia). The first phase consisted of the collection of the documentary material present at National Archives in Rome and at the Ministry of Justice, completed in December 2015 and the examination of the sources available for legislation. From June 2013 until December 2015 several missions were carried out, to the National Archives and to the Ministry of Justice. The research was developed based on the analysis of the rankings of the Ministry of Justice and, for years in the Archives, the Guida Monaci, sources who have permitted to develop the list of judges to consider. From this examination it was passed to the finding of judges’ individual personal files. It was possible to find 300 personal files, reviewed, photographed and surveyed, in various funds, in addition to material not directly present in the personal files but connected to the research. Next phase was the processing of the biographies, mainly based on the archival material found in “III Versamento”, “Cassazione”, “Ministero”, “Epurazione”. This choice was made in order to have a sufficient number of judges to be analyzed, with the purpose and the hope of being able to carry forward the work in the future by enriching each biographical file, integrating the archival material already seen with other sources.