Abstract
The criminal law standard of Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (BARD) constitutes an evidentiary and judicial rule, formulated and applied for centuries in common law jurisdictions, which was expressly stated in the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure only about fifteen years ago. Unfortunately, the concept of reasonable doubt is inherently complex and does not easily lend itself to definition or refinement. In this regard, the Author examines especially the various positions and elaborations developed by legal literature and case-law in Italy, proposing a specific interpretation of the BARD rule that enhances and completes the particular procedural connotations of the adversarial system adopted in the Italian criminal justice.
Highlights
The judgment criterion of the “Beyond A Reasonable Doubt” (BARD) rule has a direct impact on the forceful reasons protecting both personal freedom and innocence, which for centuries have been a core subject of reflection on the establishment of the criminal liability in Western legal culture, and in particular in Anglo-American law tradition[2]
The probatory and judgment criterion characterizing the Anglo-American world, legal professionals have to deal with the impact of this innovation in the Italian justice system, as well as especially acknowledging, steering, and developing the strong correlation established between the “beyond any reasonable doubt” criterion and the dynamic structures of the criminal procedure adopted in Italy, where the burden of proof borne by the prosecution adds up to the obligation to state grounds for the judicial decisions[14]
In Italy, the BARD criterion pervades the fundamental structure of the criminal procedural system and gives significant expression to some of the principal guarantees in causis criminalibus: the presumption of innocence of the accused, the burden of evidence placed on the prosecution and the decision formula in dubio pro reo, as well as the obligation of rational justification of judgements
Summary
The judgment criterion of the “Beyond A Reasonable Doubt” (BARD) rule has a direct impact on the forceful reasons protecting both personal freedom and innocence, which for centuries have been a core subject of reflection on the establishment of the criminal liability in Western legal culture, and in particular in Anglo-American law tradition[2].
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