CONOSCIBILITA' DEL PRECETTO PENALE COME AFFERRABILITA' DELL'OFFESA. UN'ANALISI DOGMATICA E POLITICO-CRIMINALE

The thesis is aimed at studying the theme of knowledge about criminal norm particularly concerning the perception of offense correspondent to the types of wrongdoing. The enquiry has been divided into three parts. Firstly it has been examined, with a historical prospective, the discipline of ignorance of law, focusing on its contents with regard to the criminal justice system. Particular attention has been paid to the historical sentence of the Constitutional Court n. 364 of the 1988 and to the effects of such a paramount decision into the criminal justice system. The second part has been dedicated to draw a connection between culpability and harm principle, with particular concern to limiting the application of criminal law. The research has developed into two perspectives: a dogmatic one and one of criminal policy. Primarily, it has considered the key point of the knowledge of the offense as regards to the elements of the crime; subsequently, it has meant to define a criminal policy perspective that enhances the perception of the criminal disvalue of the fact as a necessary condition to the knowledge of the criminal norm from which drawn a selective criterion for penal legislation. Lastly, the study has been centred upon the criminal implications deriving from the violation of the environmental law, which is characterized, in Italy, by the uncertainty of the discipline due also to the intangibility of the offence. The dissertation has intended to highlight some critical profiles of the regulation in respect to the harm principle and the principle of culpability; specifically, it has delved into the situations where the certainty of law appeared to be compromise. The option for such a specific area of legislation depends on the deficiency that distinguishes these cases of the environmental legislation from the point of view of the harm. Furthermore, related to this, the enquiry has attempted to gain some confirmations on this statement of the problem. Both the definition of the environmental interest and the most frequent techniques of safeguard have been object of a close examination. In conclusion, this thesis intends to offer some indications concerning the environmental matter about a system of safeguard which guarantees the perception of the harm and, thus, the knowledge of the criminal norm. Considering this requirement as an essential one for the sake of the principles of criminal justice system, this research has been evaluating the opportunity to have recourse to different kinds of legal safeguards, like an administrative one, in particular, when the condition expressed above appear not to be accomplished.