The First Duty of Intelligent Men is the Restatement of the Obvious: ovvero l'abrogazione del reato di ingiuria sul tavolo della Corte costituzionale

The issue of constitutionality (in relation to articles 2 and 3 of the Italian Constitution) of the rules repealing the offence of insulting behaviour (previous art. 594 of the Italian Criminal Code) is not admissible. On the basis of the principle enshrined in art. 25, par. 2, of the Italian Constitution - which reserves to the sole legislator the determination of what constitutes a criminal offence - any issue raised in order to create new criminal rules, or to extend the scope of application of existing criminal provisions to circumstances which are not (or not anymore) provided for by the legislator, or to increase the sanctions or tighten up the existing regulation is generally inadmissible. The case at stake is not subject to the exceptions according to which the Constitutional Court can scrutinise a "favourable" criminal provision. The right to honour - protected by the repealed regulation - is a fundamental right which does not entail, however, any national or supra-national criminalisation duty, which may limit the legislator's discretion in deciding the best way to safeguard it. Thus, the protection of the right to honour can be left - in addition to the non-contractual liability rules - also to civil (non-criminal) fines, on the basis of choices that must never be scrutinised by the Constitutional Court.