Luigi Rossi

Luigi Rossi (Verona, 29 April 1867 – Rome, 29 October 1941) was an Italian lawyer, jurist and politician.

Political career At the University of Bologna, he was first a freelance lecturer (from 1890), then from the following year a lecturer by appointment, becoming full professor of constitutional law in 1899.

Colosimo and Rossi also agreed on the establishment of colonial citizenship for the Arab population of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, drawing explicitly on the assimilationist policies of classical Rome as their historical model.

As minister he stipulated a convention according to which the insurgent Arab forces recognized Italian sovereignty over Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, in exchange for large autonomy in the area directly controlled by their leader Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi. This agreement achieved a temporary pacification of the colony, until Mussolini denounced it and reopened the conflict.

Minister of Justice Although he was Minister of Justice for only five months, Rossi attempted to take a firmer line than his predecessors Luigi Fera and Giulio Rodinò against attacks on public order by the rising fascist movement. In this brief period he issued six circulars to public prosecutors about what he described as the “negligent” attitude of the magistrates in the face of abuses being committed across the country. In the first of these, in May 1922, he urged magistrates to face the urgent need for "judicial treatment" of the violence of the different political factions. A few days later he took a stand against the ransacking of newspaper headquarters which, since the rise of fascism, had often been burned or occupied. He denounced the threats to which journalists were subject and reminded the prosecutors that the State had to ensure the freedom of the press.

In July 1922 his circulars grew more frequent; those dated 8, 12 and 15 of the month indicate his frustration that the courts are not impartially applying the law to crimes of a political nature. These circulars were also a sign that the judicial system was too slow and unable to respond adequately to the lawlessness that had taken hold in the country.

Honours

Principal works Among Rossi’s principal works are:

I principi fondamentali della rappresentanza politica (“The fundamental principles of political representation”) (1894) Sulla natura giuridica del diritto elettorale politico (“On the legal nature of political electoral law”) (1907) Bartolo da Sassoferrato nel diritto pubblico del suo tempo (“Bartolo da Sassoferrato in the public law of his time”) (1917) Programma del corso di diritto pubblico comparato (“Syllabus of the course on comparative public law”) (1926) Potere personale e potere rappresentativo nella "Sacra corona d'Ungheria" (”Personal power and representative power in the "Holy Crown of Hungary"”) (1934); Un criterio di logica giuridica: la regola e l'eccezione particolarmente nel diritto pubblico (“A criterion of legal logic: the rule and the exception particularly in public law”) (1935).