La participation du peuple à l’administration de la justice pénale en Italie: physionomie structurelle et fonctionnelle de la Corte d’assise

The paper provides a synthetic overview of the Corte d’Assise: a collegial judicial organ, formed by two professional judges (giudici togati) along with six lay judges (giudici popolari), implementing the con- stitutional principle set forth by the third paragraph of Article 102 of the Constitution, which expressly recognises the ‘direct participation of the people in the administration of justice’. After retracing the origins and historical evolution of the Corte d’Assise, this paper highlights strengths and weaknesses of the role played by the lay judge in the Italian criminal trial.