ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Alessandro Pistochini, Davide Giorgiadi, Giulia Barattini and Carlotta Scozia, Pistochini Avvocati Studio Legale
3. Scope of Application 3.1 Limitation Period
Furthermore, all the above-mentioned offences may hypothetically be committed through an intermediary: indeed, the criminal justice system has a general rule, set forth in Article 110 of the ICC, according to which any person who par - ticipates in the commission of a crime (through conscious behaviour and causally linked to the fact) is liable for it. In this way, any third party who acts together with the agent is equally liable for the crime committed. 2.6 Lobbyists Italian legislation does not provide for a uni - form regulation of lobbying activities. However, such activities have been subject to multiple initiatives at both the national and regional level through the issuing of regulatory acts (eg, Tos - cana Regional Law No 5/2002, Molise Regional Law No 24/2004, Lombardia Regional Law No 17/2016; the Ministry for Economic Develop - ment and Ministry of Labour and Social Policy Directive of 24 September 2018; and Ministry of Ecological Transition Decree No 258 of 1 August 2018). It is worth noting that, in 2016, the Cham - ber of Deputies approved the Code of Conduct for Deputies and the Regulation of Interest Rep - resentation Activities, which provided for the introduction of a register of entities that engage in professional interest representation activities before the deputies. Regarding the regulation of lobbyists and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) recommendations on this matter, see 9.1 Assessment of the Applicable Enforced Leg- islation .
As a general rule, under Italian criminal law, any crime is extinguished after a period correspond - ing to the maximum prison term provided for each offence and, in any case, after a period of not less than six years, starting from the day the offence is committed (Article 157 of the ICC). According to Articles 160 and 161 of the ICC, the limitation period can be suspended by one of the procedural acts specifically determined by law (eg, a request for committal to trial) and may be extended by up to one quarter of its ordinary duration. Suspension of the limitation period may be longer for corruption crimes under Arti - cles 318, 319, 319-ter, 319-quater, 320, 321 and 322-bis of the ICC, for which the extension term is doubled. The statute of limitations was widely amended by Law No 9/2019 (Bonafede Reform), which introduced a “freezing clause” for the statute of limitations after the first-instance judgment for all crimes committed from 1 January 2020 (mean - ing that, for these crimes, the limitation period ends with the issue of the first-instance verdict). This new clause was recently confirmed by Law No 134/2021 (Cartabia Reform), which also sets maximum time limits for appeal proceedings and for proceedings before the Supreme Court with regard to all crimes committed from 1 January 2020. The limits are: • two years (extensible for one further year in the event of a particularly complex trail) for appeal proceedings; and • one year (extensible for a further six months in the event of a particularly complex trial) for proceedings before the Supreme Court.
250 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook