CARRARA, FRANCESCO. - Italian criminalist, b. at Lucca on 18 Sept. 1805, d. there on 15 Jan. 1888. He graduated in law at the University of Pisa, after having followed the courses in criminal law of G. Carmignani. He was a lawyer and then professor of criminal law in the lyceum of Pisa for twelve years; he was then called to occupy the chair of criminal law in that university. A deputy in various legislatures, he was appointed senator of the kingdom on 25 May 1876. He may be considered the perfecter of the doctrine of the classical school of criminal law.
He set out his system in a powerful work which he entitled Programma del corso di diritto criminale, published at Lucca from 1867 to 1870 in 9 vols. The first two treat of the general part, the other seven of individual offenses, distinguished into natural, insofar as they violate a natural right of the individual, and social, insofar as they injure the rights of the whole collectivity. From the latter he held that political offenses had to be excluded, inasmuch as the absolute and constant principles that are the foundation of criminal law could not be applied to them. To him is also owed a series of other works on criminal law which he collected in the Opuscoli, published at Lucca (1859-74). Lastly he turned to the study of procedure with the examination of the systems implemented in the various codes, and he also wrote the Lineamenti di pratica legislativa penale (Turin 1874).
At the basis of his conception is the idea that the foundation of criminal law resides in the presupposition of an eternal and inviolable law that grants to man the rights necessary to fulfill the duties imposed by the moral law itself. Hence derives the necessity of protecting the external order for society. The primary end of punishment is the re-establishment of the external order of society. With this way of framing the problem of criminal justice, C. had the merit of setting aside the previous abstract moralistic doctrines and the vague affirmations of social defense. The formula of legal protection becomes through him a fundamental postulate of the doctrine of criminal law.
Bibliography5 works
Antonio Rota