A right turn in English Criminal Law : no more anomalous forms of complicity. An important lesson from the UK Supreme Court

For more than thirty years the English law established that whenever two defendants had a common intention to commit a particular crime, but one of them committed another crime, the other party was criminally liable for the acts by the primary offender if he had foreseen the possibility that he might have acted as he did. The principle was based on the equation between foresight and intent. The recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in the joint cases Jogee and Ruddock changes the law, by restating the older principle according to which the mental element required of a secondary party is an intention to assist or encourage the principal to commit the crime. Foresight is not equivalent to authorisation. This decision has the effect of bringing the mental element of the secondary party back into broad parity with what is required of the principal and of narrowing the scope of criminal law. It can also stimulate Italian lawyers and law-makers to start a thorough rethinking of the law of the much-debated concorso anomalo

Harm, Offence and Offesa in the English and the Italian Criminal Law. For a Constitutionalisation of a Unitary Principle of Harm in the English Legal System, also as a Criterion of Judicial Interpretation

Despite its liberal tradition, the English law is still far from enforcing the harm principle as a fundamental principle of criminal law. On the one hand, the legislator often criminalises harmless behaviours; on the other hand, courts still seek to enforce morality through criminal law. A new perspective comes from the Italian doctrine of the principio di offensività (literally, principle of harmfulness), in its two-fold dimension of criterion of criminalisation and criterion of judicial interpretation-application. Such principle had a considerable impact on Italian law, to the extent that the Constitutional Court recognised it as a constitutionalised principle of criminal law. This article assesses the possibility of exporting the Italian constitutional oriented approach to the English legal framework, in the attempt of finding some legal and constitutional foundations for the harm principle. / Nonostante la sua tradizione liberale, il diritto inglese è ancora lontano dall’applicare l’harm principle quale principio fondamentale del diritto penale. Per un verso, il legislatore spesso incrimina condotte inoffensive; per altro verso, le corti ancora si servono del diritto penale per reprimere l’immoralità. Una nuova prospettiva proviene dal principio italiano di offensività, nella sua duplice dimensione di criterio legislativo e criterio di interpretazione-applicazione giudiziaria. Tale principio ha avuto un impatto considerevole sul diritto italiano, al punto che la Corte Costituzionale lo ha riconosciuto quale principio costituzionalizzato di diritto penale. Questo articolo valuta la possibilità di importare l’approccio costituzionalmente orientato italiano nel quadro giuridico inglese, nel tentativo di trovare un qualche fondamento normativo e costituzionale all’harm principle

Coronavirus and fraud in the UK:from the responsibilities of the civil society to the deresponsibilisation of the state

The sudden move of our lives online during the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased fraud risks. The personal and economic harms are enormous. The UK Government is responding with a two-fold approach. On the one hand, it relies on traditional law enforcement. On the other hand, it seeks to encourage individuals, businesses and public agencies to take responsibility in controlling and preventing crime by changing their practices through information campaigns and risk assessment and management., a strategy known as 'responsibilisation'. While literature in the last few decades has broadly analysed the social implications of responsibilisation on crime control in general, not many studies have focused on the specific area of financial crime. This study assesses the UK response to COVID-19-related fraud risks in light of the literature on responsibilisation through a comparative review of different policies and practices by various government agencies. Our analysis will reveal that the UK Government’s two-fold approach to fraud and financial crime is inherently inadequate to effectively prevent crime. Strained law enforcement agencies and regulators struggle to cope with the high numbers of reported frauds. As a result, both deterrence and retribution are undermined. On the other hand, the fixation on the surgical identification, dissection and rectification of a myriad of micro-situations that can entail a risk of crime causes the government to lose sight of the root causes of crime - biological, psychological, social, cultural, economic and political. After our critical discussion, we will put forwards some recommendations to improve not only COVID-19-related anti-fraud policies and practices but, more generally, the response to fraud and financial crime

Rieducazione e pena militare

Article 27 of the Italian Constitution establishes that «punishments shall strive for the re-education of the condemned». The Italian system of military penal sanctions, as conceived by the military criminal codes of peace and of war (and related regulations) before the Constitution entered into force, seemed to be oriented towards an all military re-education often forcibly imposed on the condemned, instead of being proposed as a voluntary occasion of re-socialisation. Thus, re-education turned into an additional afflictive content of punishment against the principles of proportionality and humanity affirmed by the Constitution and by international and supranational charters. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the relation between re-education and military punishment in the Italian legal order, in the light of the constitutional and international principles concerning punishment. The structure of the volume is organised according to the three different moments of punishment - legislative provision (Chapter one), judicial application (Chapter three) and penal execution (Chapter two) - so to understand how the principle of re-education affects such phases. Chapter four illustrates the international principles on punishment and re-education and offers a comparative overview on relevant aspects of British and Chinese military criminal law

Economic impact of industry-sponsored clinical trials in inflammatory bowel diseases: Results from the national institute of gastroenterology “Saverio de Bellis”

Introduction: The majority of the money spent on possible new medications’ clinical trials is accounted for by the innovative pharmaceutical sector, which also stimulates the economy of a nation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of pharmaceutical industry-sponsored clinical trials (ISCTs) in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) towards the national health service (NHS) in terms of avoided costs and leverage effect. Methodology: The research was conducted at National Institute of Gastroenterology, “Saverio De Bellis”, Castellana Grotte (Apulia, Italy) collecting data from profit ISCTs of pharmaceutical products conducted over the time period 2018-2020 with focus on inflammatory bowel diseases. After the quantification of health services and drug costs from the latter studies, avoided costs and leverage effects were then estimated. Results: The results on the avoided costs for healthcare facilities deriving from the conduct of clinical studies show that, in relation to the sample of five drug companies participating in our 2018-2020 analysis, out of a total of 235,102.46 €, identified as direct investment, 628,158.21 € of avoided costs for the NHS were measured, with an additional saving (leverage effect) for the NHS of 3.67 € for each € invested by the companies promoting clinical trials

High Risk of Secondary Infections Following Thrombotic Complications in Patients With COVID-19

Background. This study’s primary aim was to evaluate the impact of thrombotic complications on the development of secondary infections. The secondary aim was to compare the etiology of secondary infections in patients with and without thrombotic complications. Methods. This was a cohort study (NCT04318366) of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients hospitalized at IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital between February 25 and June 30, 2020. Incidence rates (IRs) were calculated by univariable Poisson regression as the number of cases per 1000 person-days of follow-up (PDFU) with 95% confidence intervals. The cumulative incidence functions of secondary infections according to thrombotic complications were compared with Gray’s method accounting for competing risk of death. A multivariable Fine-Gray model was applied to assess factors associated with risk of secondary infections. Results. Overall, 109/904 patients had 176 secondary infections (IR, 10.0; 95% CI, 8.8–11.5; per 1000-PDFU). The IRs of secondary infections among patients with or without thrombotic complications were 15.0 (95% CI, 10.7–21.0) and 9.3 (95% CI, 7.9–11.0) per 1000-PDFU, respectively (P = .017). At multivariable analysis, thrombotic complications were associated with the development of secondary infections (subdistribution hazard ratio, 1.788; 95% CI, 1.018–3.140; P = .043). The etiology of secondary infections was similar in patients with and without thrombotic complications. Conclusions. In patients with COVID-19, thrombotic complications were associated with a high risk of secondary infections