Trieste: office of the “Giudice di Pace” (Justice of the Peace).
On April 29th, 2015 I addressed the Commissioner of the Italian Government in the Free Territory di Trieste. I requested her to declare a decision of the local Justice of the Peace null and void under the 1947 Peace Treaty.
The proceeding dates back to 2003, when I denounced a case of illegal building and crimes against the environment committed by Muggia’s City Council. They sued me, and I was found guilty of aggravated defamation. I told the story of the whole proceeding in blog entry “In the name of Concrete” and in my investigative book “Tracks of legality“.
That was a time of many struggles in defense of our environment, sieged by both building speculations and the uncontrolled hazardous waste disposal. Thanks to its corrupt political establishment, Trieste had become the disposal site of choice for the powerful Italian mafia-like criminal cartels’ dirty business.
We weren’t many standing against this organized criminal cartel; in Trieste it enjoys special immunities for State reasons, as we soon discovered at our own expenses.
Back then we were still wide-eyed optimists, trusting the authorities, especially the judiciary. We lost that trust very soon, as we discovered, one step after another, the evidences that each local body was compromised with the culprits of Trieste’s environmental disaster.
The very judiciary we trusted used out complaints against us, sweeping away our environmentalist organization (Amici della Terra Trieste – Friends of the Earth Trieste). Nobody shall investigate the waste dumped in Trieste in Italy’s name.
And now we get to the Justice of the Peace. That legal action was our first “warning” – stop what you are doing, it bothers Italy very much. At the time we were not yet aware of Trieste’s legal status. We didn’t know to be citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste.
We didn’t know that in this land, only the Italian nationalists who illegally simulate Italian sovereignty enjoy rights and privileges.
The Justice of the Peace’s decision against me, the consequent lawsuits, it all contributed to the crumbling and the destruction of the environmentalist movement that stood for the redemption of a land raped by State pollution.
But this has also strengthen my rebellious spirit and my will to oppose those who poisoned out land and our people. I decided to never surrender to the arrogant power of the Mafia.
I kept struggling for legality in this land, now I know freedom is not that far away anymore. Of course, it is the people of Trieste that need to do the majority of the work. But now the people of the Free Territory of Trieste are becoming aware of their rights. Rights they need to claim, and seek respect for.
I am doing it, everyone should. And so, our freedom comes closer.
That very decision of the Justice of the Peace, symbol of our rights’ denial, is now impugned in the name of our laws. It is the laws of our State, not those of bordering Italy, which is a foreign Country.
One such illegitimate Italian law, incompatible with the Free Territory of Trieste’s legal order, is Law No. 374 of November 21st, 1991, w. amendments. This law establishes honorary magistrates, including the Justice of the Peace.
I say this because neither the Commissioner of the Italian Government or the Government itself extended Law No. 374/91 to Trieste.
Furthermore, the Commissioner’s Decree No. 100 of March 3rd, 1955 extended to the present-day Free Territory the general principles of the Italian legal order. This means that the issuing of judgments by honorary judgments instead of ordinary ones breaches art. 102 of the Italian Constitution:
Judicial proceedings are exercised by ordinary magistrates empowered and regulated by the provisions concerning the Judiciary. Extraordinary or special judges may not be established.
This means that honorary judges are against both Italy’s and Trieste’s laws.
Any direct enforcement of Italian (or other State’s) laws in Trieste without prior extension:
- endangers and threats the rights and legitimate interests of more than just the parties in individual civil, criminal, administrative, fiscal trials, or in these regarding the registration of properties, but also the rights of all the citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory;
- violates the international laws about the Free Territory, and also Italy’s Constitutional legal order (arts. 10, sub-paragraph 1 and 117, sub-paragraph 1).
All judgments issued by honorary magistrates in the Free Territory are therefore null and void. The Commissioner of the Government is the officer to address about it.
Indeed, it is acts against the laws regarding the temporary civil administration (special trusteeship) sub-entrusted to the Italian Government under the MoU regarding the Free Territory (5 October 1954). This mandate includes all powers previously exercised by the British-US Government, including jurisdiction.
The Italian Government appointed a Commissioner General in the Territory of Trieste to exercise those powers (Decree of the President of the Italian Republic of 29 October 1954). This officer exists still. it is a Commissioner of the Government in Region Friuli Venezia Giulia (established under Italian Constitutional Law No. 1/1963. Extended to the Free Territory by publication in the Official Bulletin of the Office of the Commissioner General No. 7 of 11 March 1963).
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Translated from blog “Ambiente e Legalità” – “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante