Abstract

The article analyses times and modalities through which the Italian penal system reacted to the terrorism of the 1970s. After the full-blown impossibility to adopt legislative solutions of other countries (specifically the case of Western Germany), italian judges were involved in the fight against terrorism. They became the main characters of the first phase of an Italian solution, focused on the elaboration of interpretative solutions. At a later stage the task to inspire this penal legislation was given to the Ministry of the Interior, Minister Francesco Cossiga exploited the instrument of emergency establishment in order to impose necessary and incoherent measures. In the last phase, which started with the kidnapping of the Secretary of Christian Democratic Party Aldo Moro in 1978, a strategical and oriented intervention was developed. It was based on the individuation of a double platform of intervention: aggravating sanctions and introducing of special discounts for these sanctions for who decided to collaborate. The last part of this contribution shows how adopted penal solutions in Italy in the 1970s were an example, with an internal and external circulation of knowledge, both to face other national emergencies and to fight the terroristic threat.