JULY 10th, 17th, 24th: THREE HEARINGS FOR TRIESTE’S FUTURE
Photo by Ketty Cesar.
July is going to be an important month for Trieste’s future. A future discussed before Court, as the people oppose the simulation of Italian sovereignty over their State, the Free Territory of Trieste.
Many people are raising the exception of jurisdiction: they want civil, criminal and tax Courts to judge them under Trieste’s laws. This is what standing for the rule of law is all about, because even Italian laws recognize this situation.
After 60 years of nationalistic propaganda, Trieste’s people have had enough and are standing for legality. One and a half year of legal battles has cornered the local Italian authorities: they must chose if ruling against the international treaties that recognize Trieste’s legal status, including the international Free Port.
Certainly not the easiest decisions, because Italy recognizes those treaties. Judges brave (or fool) enough to declare that Trieste is under Italian sovereignty would breach even Italian law, and bear the responsibility that follows.
Such a decision would put into serious question, for example, the very existence of Trieste’s international Free Port and of its free zones regime, because they can only exist within the Free Territory of Trieste.
Could the International Community of States even stand it? One state, defeated in WWII, could ever have its officers unilaterally ruling against treaties recognized by all Allied Powers?
Trieste is a significant test for the international legal order. The illegal attempts to take away the irremovable Northern Free Port, placed under international legal constraints, would put free zones allover the world in danger. Legal certainty would end. Any Country could use Trieste as a precedent to disrupt international law. World balances would be at stake.
This is why the hearing to come in this hot summer take place in the capital city of the Free State of Trieste. The people of Trieste standing before Court are doing so for their homeland, but also for the future of all, based on the legitimacy of undeniable rights.
HERE IS A LIST OF THE PROCEEDINGS REGARDING TRIESTE’S RIGHTS AND FUTURE:
- 10 July, 4PM, Trieste’s provincial Tax Court (via S. Anastasio 12 II° piano). The first exception of jurisdiction regarding a Tax Court;
- 17 July at Noon, Court of Trieste – Foro Ulpiano 1 – (room 113). First discussion about the meaning and scope of the 1954 MoU in a criminal proceeding. The MoU is the source of the special trusteeship mandate that the Governments of the US and of the UK have sub-entrusted to the Italian Government for it to continue administering Trieste in continuity with the A.M.G. F.T.T. or British-US Military Government;
- 24 July at 10AM, Court of Trieste. First hearing of the civil lawsuit in which the question of the local Court of Appeal became a matter of debate (because this Court is a Court of the Free Territory of Trieste).
Supporting the courageous citizens who, fearless, face judges who simulate Italian sovereignty and ask them to re-establish the rule of law in spite of nationalism and propaganda is a civil duty for allo those who believe in Trieste’s future. And in the value of this legal battle for the fundamental principles that are the core of modern democracy.
Translated from blog “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante