Legalità, non oligarchie: profili penalistici. Una scommessa ancor attuale sulla peggior forma di governo, eccezion fatta per tutte le altre

The paper focuses on the principle of legality, exploring the correlation between the state power and the law as well as the real function of the penal law, not merely oriented to convicting. This framework shows the reasons why the Parliament is the place where well-balanced choices in criminal matters can be made, so that penalty is aimed not to blame, but to motivate. Despite this, Parliament has often been the ‘site’ of penal populism. It involves the need to reform the operating methods of parliament, so that the political debate, as the relation between states, ceases to be understood according to the logic of conflict.