Les pouvoirs d’office de la Cour de Cassation dans le système italien

Nowadays we live a time in where we see the increase of ex officio powers of our Supreme Court. These powers are much more remarkable today than in the past, either referring to the procedure to be implemented in front of the Court, or speaking about the function of uniform interpretation of the legal rules. It is necessary to wonder about the reasons of this evolution. The discretionary power of the Court in terms of the procedure to be followed – that of the council chamber or the public plea – is exactly indicative of the opposition between the ius constitutionis and the ius litigatoris: all the appeals are decided in council chamber, except those who concern a problem of law of general importance, who are always judged in public plea. What we can say it is that the characters of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation are modifying – and it results even from the increase of ex officio powers – with prevalence of the ius constitutionis on the ius litigatoris. In the Italian system, thus, the current trend is to turn into a control over the interpretation of the law in the general interest, rather than being a “third” degree of jurisdiction.