suggested citation: A. Lo Calzo, Il punto sull’effettività del risarcimento per le vittime dei crimini di guerra del nazismo. A partire dalla sentenza della Corte costituzionale n. 159/2023, lceonline (www.lceonline.eu), 1/2025, I/Saggi e contributi, p. 35 ss.
key words: Italian Constitutional court; war crimes; international law; fundamental rights; compensation for damages; judicial protection of rights
abstract: The events concerning reparations for damages suffered by victims of Nazi crimes committed during World War II have been at the centre of a complex affair, the subject of extensive analysis by scholars of constitutional and international law in particular. Many interventions have been made by jurisdictional and political bodies in this regard, often carrying a different view of the relationship between the protection of rights and the guarantee of friendly relations between states. The matter under consideration would seem (at least on the surface) to have found an initial epilogue in the provision of a special “Restitution Fund” by Article 43 of Decree-Law No. 36/2022, on which would have encumbered the reparations recognized and quantified at the outcome of the appeals brought against Germany before the ordinary Italian courts, as well as in the ruling of the Constitutional Court No. 159/2023, which found the establishment of the Fund to be legitimate, which was associated, as the flip side of the coin, with a provision aimed at preventing and interrupting execution judgments against Germany. The contribution intends to dwell on the most recent aspects of this lengthy affair, investigating the degree to which the plaintiffs’ claims in accessing the fund have been effectively satisfied, also keeping in mind the procedural conduct held by the State Bar in some recent judgments defined by the judges of merit and the apparent inconsistencies of the legislature’s choices, which have been at the centre of the political debate before the Parliament.
