L'IGNORANTIA LEGIS ED IL DIFFICILE APPRODO AL PRINCIPIO DI COLPEVOLEZZA.UN'INDAGINE COMPARATISTICA SULLA PRASSI APPLICATIVA.

The present work offers a critical comparative contribution to the doctrinal and jurisprudential debate concerning one of the most discussed and problematic regulation of Italian criminal law, Article 5 of the Criminal Law Code, which moves on a delicate area between general-preventive needs and the affirmation of the guilty principle. We will try to put together "lights and shadows" of that regulation, both in its original version and in the one-reformulated in 1988 by the Constitutional Court, with particular consideration for the real application of the principle therein contained. Starting from a research in the German law (§ 17 StGB), we will try to outline the possible developments of Article 5 Criminal Law Code, within Italian and European law.