Palermo, magistrates in congress at the Teatro Massimo

May 10, 2024, 4.46pm

2 min read

PALERMO – Standing ovation and minutes of applause for the head of state Sergio Mattarella upon his entrance to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo for the 36th congress of the National Magistrates Association. The President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa is also present.

This morning the president of the ANM Giuseppe Santalucia participated in a ceremony at the “bunkerino”, the office that hosted the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino inside the Palermo courthouse.

“Two models, Falcone and Borsellino, to which all of us magistrates must aim. But we also want to remind the outside world of what the judiciary was and is, a guardian of legality, of protection of rights and guarantees, which must be preserved as a common good and essential for the entire community”, said Santalucia.

There are more than a thousand magistrates present from today until Sunday in Palermo. The theme of the congress is “Judiciary and law, between impartiality and interpretation”.

Schifani’s words

“The impartiality of the magistrate, and therefore not only that of the judge, it is not only a principle, which becomes a specific duty inherent to the individual institutional position, but it is above all an essential ethical value”, said the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, in his speech.

An “immanent value for the figure of the magistrate in the exercise of jurisdiction which extends to external projection, to the image of impartiality, the so-called neutrality of appearance, which is a guarantee of impartiality for those who are judged and which is intertwined with the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms”.

“This requires every magistrate to commit to overcoming cultural prejudices which can influence him and to ensure and guarantee his image of impartiality – continued Schifani – Being impartial must thus be defined in relation to the concrete trial, while appearing impartial constitutes, rather, a value immanent to the institutional position of the magistrate, indispensable to legitimize, among public opinion, the exercise of jurisdiction as a sovereign function: being a magistrate implies, from this perspective and in substantial terms, a public image of impartiality”.