«L'eccezione permanente».Spunti per una riflessione sui caratteri costitutivi dell'ordinamento penale napoleonico

This study investigates the Napoleonic legal system with particular reference to criminal law. The study of authorities shows that it is not historically correct to look at the criminal code only, as if it could be considered the only relevant feature in Napoleonic criminal law. The legal system encompassed several repression levels, designed to further expand the already powerful punitive action; this purposefully disrupted the guarantees enshrined in the criminal code and criminal procedure code. Reference is to Special Courts, established in 1801 and later integrated into the “Code d’instruction criminelle”in 1808/11, and to administrative detention (which has been correctly deemed as a return to “lettres de cachets”), introduced with a decree in 1810, “à pas de loups”, as the French would say.