Re-Reading Piero Calamandrei

“Interesse Pubblico” in Administrative Proceedings and the Non-Relativity of the Principle of Judicial Impartiality

Abstract

The paper starts from some initial ideas offered by Piero Calamandrei’s 1939 essay La relatività del concetto di azione. It analyses some current profiles of the administrative judicial proceeding, focusing in particular on one of the possible problematic issues, the impartiality of the judge as a fundamental component of due process (art. 111 of the Constitution). Among the various stimuli arising from recent trends in jurisprudence, following the issuance of the 2010 Code, two seem very significant regarding the “role” of the administrative judge in the process; they are situated at different levels: the judge’s decision-making power and the procedural investigation. The author’s opinion is that the impartiality of the judge identifies a principle co-essential to the exercise of the judicial function, which also involves the overcoming of any conception that attributes “special” protection to the public interest within the administrative judicial proceeding.