L'AMMINISTRAZIONE DELLA GIUSTIZIA CRIMINALE NAPOLEONICA. A BOLOGNA FRA PRASSI E INSEGNAMENTO DEL DIRITTO PENALE

This research was focused on the study of the rich materials - not yet properly cataloged - which are kept in the State Archives of Bologna, with particular reference to the Criminal Court of Appeal in the Napoleonic era. The choice of a judiciary in Bologna appeared, from a methodological profile, full of different suggestions, given that - as we know - Bologna was and still is a university town for excellence with a strong tradition in the field of legal science and, at the same time, a center of great importance in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy; Bologna is therefore a privileged place to measure the comparison between the doctrinal tradition and the french innovation. In the passage from ancien régime to the Napoleonic age the role of the judge has faced the hegemonic will of the legislature to control the iurisdictio and the process. The class of judges, which in previous centuries had enjoyed considerable autonomy and that sometimes felt they could judge 'like God', was confronted with the projects of reform and streamlining regulations that invested primarily the exercise of justice, the procedure and the judiciary.