The European Court of Human Rights

The firm provides assistance and advice on international matters, and is experienced in drafting appeals to the European Court of Human Rights. In the last ten years, the Court at Strasbourg has dealt with several cases of possible incompatibility of the domestic practice and regulations in criminal procedure and law with the European Convention of Human Rights.

 

This has happened, for example, with regard to confiscation, preventive measures, prison treatment, the retrospective application of lighter sentences and the presumption of innocence. Indeed the ECHR has played a central role also in Italian criminal law, also because – given the right conditions – it is an ideal tool for attacking criminal judgments.

 

In judgment 113 of 2011, the Constitutional Court declared that section 630 (Review cases) of the code of criminal procedure was anti-constitutional in the part in which it does not provide for a different case to review the judgment or criminal sentence in order to allow the trial to be re-opened, when this is necessary under article 46, paragraph 1 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, in order to comply with a definitive judgment of the European Court, The Studio Legale Bongiorno has in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms of access to the Court of Strasbourg, which it implements, all internal appeal routes having been exhausted, within six months of the last definitive internal decision.

 

The professionalism of the Studio Legale Bongiorno in relation to the protection system provided by the Council of Europe also extends to enterprises in Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. Drafting organisational models always involves an assessment of the level of human rights protection.