LA CLASS ACTION E LA FUNZIONE DI DETERRENZA DEGLI ILLECITI CIVILI IN PROSPETTIVA COMPARATISTICA

[automatically translated] The research deals with the examination institute the class action or collective action for damages long existing in the American system and recently transposed into Italian, through L.23 99 July 2009, which amended the previous legislation at article 2 paragraph 446 of Law 244 of 24 December 2007 (2008 Budget), albeit with some significant differences compared to the American system that reduce the potential applications (consider, eg., the Italian system of choice opt-in rather than opt-out system). Next to the class action - for the similar function of deterrence - it will cd punitive damages or punitive damages, for a long time widely used in the American system and until now regarded with suspicion in Italian law. With reference to them, however, it is significant that the most recent case-law of the US Supreme Court (since the judgment in State Farm v. Campbell 2003) considered it necessary to put a limit to the amount of damages in accordance with the constitutional provision of the due process of law. L 'parallel analysis of the two institutions, class actions and punitive damages, it can detect useful not only with respect in order to make more efficient civil justice - these are fundamental instruments of deterrence function of tort - but above all, in comparative perspective, to detect the gradual progressive weakening of the demarcation line between the systems considered.