Presentation of the English Translation of the Italian Restorative Justice Legislation

We are pleased to present to the international scholarly community the first English translation of the comprehensive Italian legislation on restorative justice, introduced by Legislative Decree No. 150 of 10 October 2022 (widely known as the Cartabia Reform). This legislative framework is the first of its kind to be adopted in Italy, and its translation into English will make it accessible to scholars, practitioners, and institutions engaged in the global development of restorative justice.

Within the European context, the Italian legislation is of particular significance. For the first time, Italy has adopted a systematic framework that provides a unified definition of the concepts, principles, procedural safeguards, and operational modalities governing restorative justice programmes. This framework recognises the centrality of the persons involved in an offence and the fundamental role of the community. Owing to its breadth, internal coherence, and completeness, it now serves as a point of reference within domestic law for designing broader criminal law reforms, in line with Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8 of the Council of Europe. It also makes an important contribution to the international debate, facilitating comparative dialogue and transnational cooperation.

The origins of the reform can be traced back to Law No. 134 of 27 September 2021, the enabling act drafted by the commission chaired by former President of the Constitutional Court, Giorgio Lattanzi. This act mandated the Italian government to introduce, for the first time, a general framework for restorative justice aligned with the most recent recommendations of the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and the directives of the European Union. The resulting legislative decree established a unified corpus of provisions, definitively overcoming the previous fragmentation that had limited the use of restorative justice to specific areas, such as juvenile justice or probation.

Legislative Decree No. 150/2022 provides a broad and inclusive legal definition of restorative justice as a set of programmes that enable the victim, the alleged offender, and other members of the community to participate freely and voluntarily in addressing the consequences of the offence with the assistance of an impartial and adequately trained mediator. Significant aspects of this definition include the adoption of person-first language to avoid anticipating guilt, the recognition of the community as an actor in the reparative process, the emphasis on the mediator’s professional training, and the introduction of the reparative outcome, which may positively influence judicial decisions, whether material or symbolic.

The fundamental principles of restorative justice, set out in Article 43 of the decree, form the basis of the entire approach: voluntariness, informed consent, confidentiality, fair consideration of the parties’ interests, community involvement, proportionality of reparative outcomes, the independence of mediators, and the provision of adequate time to carry out programmes.

These principles not only perform a definitional function but also serve as interpretative criteria for the entire Italian criminal justice system, indirectly yet significantly contributing to its development in a more humane and relational direction.

The explicit objectives of the Italian legislature are to acknowledge the victim, foster responsibility in the person identified as having caused harm, and rebuild ties with the community. While these aims are consistent with international standards, they are given particular emphasis in the Italian legislation, which assigns them a guiding role for mediators and institutions.

One of the most innovative aspects of the framework – and one likely to attract considerable international interest – concerns its broad scope of application. Italian law provides that restorative justice programmes are accessible for any type of offence, regardless of the seriousness or nature of the harm. Moreover, programmes may be initiated at any stage of criminal proceedings: during investigations, at trial, throughout the execution of the sentence, after the sentence has been served, and even following declarations of non-prosecution or limitation. In offences requiring a victim’s complaint, programmes may also be activated before the complaint is filed. This exceptionally open legislative choice is grounded in the notion of the “appropriate moment” for both the victim and the person accused of causing harm, and in the understanding that restorative processes operate according to different temporal logics than criminal procedure.

Although the legislation does not recognise an individual subjective right to restorative justice, it establishes a system that strongly encourages voluntary participation in programmes, prioritising the protection of the parties involved, ensuring the quality of mediation, and upholding the dignity of all participants.

Numerous safeguards are provided, including confidentiality, the non-use of statements in criminal proceedings, the absence of adverse legal consequences, the presence of legal counsel at key stages, mediator independence, risk assessment to prevent secondary victimisation, and specific professional training requirements.

From an operational perspective, Legislative Decree No. 150/2022 is currently in its implementation phase: the process for recognising and accrediting Restorative Justice Centres – public entities by nature – is nearing completion, as is the establishment, within the Ministry of Justice, of the register of “mediators specialised in restorative justice programmes.”

The translation presented here is an unofficial version, produced in an academic context with the utmost philological care and with the aim of making the Italian legislation accessible to an international audience. Certain legal terms required careful linguistic adaptation, given the absence of exact English equivalents. The translation was carried out through a collaborative and dialogic method inspired by the very principles of restorative justice: the initial draft was prepared by students of the course on Restorative Justice and Criminal Mediation at the University of Insubria, Nicole Landenberger and Alessandro Vaiti; the linguistic and terminological revision was undertaken by Dr Carlotta Calemme and Sara Bianca Taverriti, collaborators of the Centre for Studies on Restorative Justice and Mediation (CeSGREM) at the same university; the work was carried out under the joint supervision of Chiara Perini and myself.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to this achievement. This translation has been undertaken with the intention of offering the international community a useful tool for understanding the most recent Italian legislation and for fostering global dialogue on restorative justice. This introduction accompanies the legal text, which will be made available online by the European Forum for Restorative Justice. We hope to have fulfilled this task to the best of our abilities and would be grateful for any suggestions for improvement from those who read and engage with the text.