Indicator history

A number of the measures introduced as part of the so-called “security package” adopted in May 2008, in the wake of an election campaign dominated by the law and order agenda and by criticism of migrants and Roma people by members of the coalition led by Berlusconi, have been quashed in a series of recent decisions by the Italian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Three key issues that the rulings highlighted include the discrimination that introducing longer sentences for the same criminal offences in cases involving “illegal” immigrants entails, that the imprisonment under criminal law of immigrants who have been caught while their status is illegal and have not complied with an order to leave the country contravenes the so-called Returns Directive, and the unconstitutionality of the wideranging expansion of local councils’ powers (in particular mayors) to issue ordinances on matters pertaining to policies on security and public order.

Source:

Maccanico Yasha, Statewatch Analysis Italy, Series of defeats in court for the “security package”, July 2011 - http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-137-italy-security-package.pdf