Il giudice e la misericordia : riflessioni sull’amministrazione della giustizia nel diritto canonico classico

The remarks of the medieval canonists about mercy suggest some considerations on the issue, topical today, of the relationship between justice and public opinion. Through the concept of scandal, which involved the dynamics of social consent to the public institutions, the debate focused on how social reactions could affect the sentencing, with particular regard to the effects resulting from the use of mercy. The need to prevent demonstrations of dissention or protest suggested to canonists that the judge could mitigate, at times, the rigor of the law, even up to forgive an offender, in order to meet social outcries. To similar solutions came the civilians, which, drawing on the canonical principles, admitted, on the contrary, the possibility of condemning an innocent in order to prevent scandals within society.