CARRARA, FRANCESCO. – Italian criminal lawyer, born in Lucca on 18 September 1805, died there on 15 January 1888. He graduated in law at the University of Pisa, having attended G. Carmignani’s courses in criminal law. He was an advocate and then professor of criminal law at the lyceum of Pisa for twelve years; thereafter he was called to occupy the chair of criminal law at that university. A deputy in various legislatures, he was appointed senator of the kingdom on 25 May 1876. He may be considered the consummator of the doctrine of the classical school of criminal law.
He expounded his system in a substantial work entitled Programma del corso di diritto criminale, published in Lucca from 1867 to 1870 in 9 volumes. The first two deal with the general part, the other seven with individual offences, divided into naturali, insofar as they violate a natural right of the individual, and sociali, insofar as they injure the rights of the entire community. From the latter he believed that political offences had to be excluded, since the absolute and constant principles forming the foundation of criminal law could not be applied to them. He was also responsible for a series of other works on criminal law, which he collected in the Opuscoli, published in Lucca (1859–74). Finally, he turned to the study of procedure, examining the systems implemented in the various codes, and also wrote the Lineamenti di pratica legislativa penale (Turin 1874).
At the foundation of his conception lies the idea that the basis of criminal law resides in the presupposition of an eternal and inviolable law that grants man the rights necessary to fulfil the duties imposed by the moral law itself. Hence derives the necessity of protecting the external order of society. The primary purpose of punishment is the restoration of society’s external order. With this approach to the problem of criminal justice, C. had the merit of setting aside the preceding abstract moralistic doctrines and the vague assertions of social defence. Through him, the formula of legal protection became a fundamental postulate of the doctrine of criminal law.