Italian Constitutional Court (Corte costituzionale italiana), No. 35/2021, 11 March 2021

Suspension from elective office in case of non-final conviction.

Art. 117, par. 1, Constitution
Art. 3, Prot. 1, ECHR
Art. 8, par. 1, D. lgs. No. 235/2012

1. In the light of the case law of the ECHR, it is not at all necessary for the concrete application of measures restricting the right to vote to take place by way of a judicial measure, since the Contracting States may choose to "incorporate" the assessment of the proportional character of the measure into the text of their laws, with the precise definition, directly in them, of the circumstances in which the measure may be applied, it then being for the Court itself to determine whether the result has been achieved, and whether, in general, the regulatory solution chosen complies with Art. 3 Prot. 1 ECHR. The concrete regulation of the measure of precautionary suspension contained in the censured provision strikes a reasonable balance between the interests at stake and in any event does not show signs of arbitrariness such as to determine its conflict with the indicated conventional parameter, as interpreted by the ECHR.
(The questions of constitutional legitimacy - raised by the Court of Genoa with reference to Article 117, paragraph 1, of the Italian Constitution - are declared unfounded, in relation to art. 3 Prot. 1 ECHR - of art. 8, paragraph 1, lett. a), of legislative decree no. 235 of 2012, which provides for the application of the precautionary measure of suspension from regional offices as an automatic consequence of a non-final criminal conviction for certain crimes, precluding the judge called to rule on the suspension measure from assessing in concrete terms the proportionality between the facts subject to conviction and the suspension itself).