Procedural and Judicial Guarantees Against the Punitive Power of Public Bodies

Abstract The scope of this analysis is to reconstruct, with a brief look to the Italian case, the ‘frame of reference’ within which the rulings of the ECtHR on the Art. 6 of the ECHR, due to the particular strength that Article 46 of the Convention attributes to them, are made, to understand, at the outcome, how, and to what extent, the sanctioning activity of public bodies can be influenced by the principles of the ECHR as enforced by the Judges of Strasbourg. To this aim the focus will be addressed on the following, and more complex, profiles: (a) independence, impartiality and separation of functions; (b) sanctioning activity and discretionary powers; (c) sufficient judicial review and full jurisdiction, to conclude the investigation trying to verify, in the light of the latest directions taken by the ECtHR; (d) whether, and how, the types of sanctions can affect the conditions of the judicial protection.