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Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, Criminal Section III, No. 8986/2019, 12 December 2019

Abstract

Relevance of cultural factors as a justification for crimes against family members.
 

Normative references

Art. 3 Italian Constitution
Artt. 570, 572, 609 bis Italian criminal code

Ruling


The foreigner accused of a crime against the person or against the family cannot invoke, not even in putative form, the exercise of a right related to faculties allegedly recognised by the law of the State of origin, if this right is to be considered objectively incompatible with the rules of the Italian legal system, in which the agent has chosen to live, given the need (pursuant to Article 3 of the Constitution) to enhance the centrality of the human person, as a principle able to harmonise different cultures , and therefore to allow the establishment of a multiethnic civil society.
(Case relating to domestic violence and personal injury, where the accused complained of the failure to take into account its cultural and religious connotations).