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La Morte Come Pena: Law, Death Penalty, And State Of Exception, Maurizio Vito

Maurizio Vito

My paper deals with a peculiar form of the State of Exception, namely the one that came to light with the death penalty, when this punishment first appeared in Italy during the Middle Ages. In his book La morte come pena. Saggio sulla violenza legale, Italo Mereu analyzes the main reasons that led to its introduction into the Italian penal system up to the moment in which, some six centuries later, it was banned. The point I will make is that a state punishment, such as the death penalty is possible only if the law opens up a space that …