The Senate of the Italian Republic has approved the draft law relating to the crime of nautical homicide and the crime of nautical bodily harm, establishing, respectively, the same rules governing road homicide and the crime of road bodily harm
by Federico Santini*
On 21 February 2023, the Senate of the Italian Republic approved, with 140 votes in favour and 3 abstentions, draft law 1402 introducing into the Italian legal system, and more precisely into the penal code, the crime of nautical homicide and the crime of nautical bodily harm, respectively providing for the same rules as the crime of road homicide and the crime of road bodily injury.
The draft law:
1. Amends the heading and content (first, second, fourth and sixth paragraphs) of Article 589-bis of the Penal Code, to extend the rules currently provided for the offence of road homicide to boating homicide;
589-bis, would therefore also apply to the hypothesis of boating homicide;
590-bis, would thus also apply to the case of nautical bodily injury;
7. Amends Article 550, paragraph 2, letter e-bis), of the Code of Criminal Procedure, extending to nautical bodily harm the application of the direct summons to trial already provided for the offence of road bodily harm.
As we write, the draft law has passed through the Chamber of Deputies and its final approval is expected to take place soon. The draft law initiated by some senators dates back to 9 July 2019 and takes up a previous draft law approved by the Senate Justice Commission in the previous legislature, which provided for the introduction of road and nautical homicide with the purpose of punishing with greater force conduct that until then was inadequately sanctioned since it was classified as a culpable offence.
That draft law – as we read in the preamble to the current draft law 1402 was, however, approved at the time only with regard to road homicide and road bodily harm, since the part relating to boating was left out as it was considered more appropriate to include it in an upcoming reorganization of the recreational boating code, which never materialized. Thus, to date, while road homicide is punished with imprisonment of up to 18 years, homicide occurring at sea is punished as a generic culpable offence and punished with imprisonment for a much shorter period, which can be as little as six months.
AS WE WRITE, THE DRAFT LAW HAS PASSED THROUGH THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES AND IS LIKELY TO BE PASSED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
The new draft law intends to fill this regulatory gap, which is unacceptable as it does not meet the criteria of proportionality of punishment between two identical offences, except only for the means by which the crime is committed. The legislator’s intent is certainly acceptable, also in the light of a series of fatal accidents which have occurred in Italian waters in recent years and which certainly make it advisable to stiffen the penalties for those responsible, but would perhaps also make it advisable to pay greater attention to the prevention of similar accidents, for example by introducing mandatory training and refresher courses on safety and rescue for holders of a boat license, and mandatory periodic physical and psychological checks.
The introduction of mandatory training and refresher courses on safety and rescue, and mandatory periodic physical and psychological checks for license holders should be appropriate.
The draft law also proposes to extend the regulation of the criminal rules provided for road homicide and serious or very serious road injuries to cases where death or injuries are caused by people driving motor boats.
(The law has changed – Barchemagazine.com – May 2023)
