The Sacro Regio Consiglio of Naples, 15th-17th century, in A.M. Godfrey, C.H. Van Ree (a cura di), Central Courts in Early Modern Europe and the Americas, Comparative Studies in Continental and Anglo-American Legal History, Dunker & Humblot, Berlin 2020.

Extensive research on the Italian Great Tribunals and the collections of their decisiones has been carried out by legal historians so far: starting from the 1970s, leading to a wider and growing interest in the Early-Modern period, Italian legal historians began to investigate the role and the function of the Supreme Royal Courts of the Peninsula. In particular Gino Gorla, a comparatist endowed with a special sensitivity to history, has been a real pioneer in the field, raising new questions¬ and setting new research trends. Gorla’s studies have been followed by Mario Ascheri, whose research on the Italian Great Tribunals and their collections of decisiones during the Medieval and Early-Modern periods not only confirmed the previous results, but also added new data on the jurisprudence of the Rote and Senati. These first fundamental studies gave birth to quite a significant number of works dedicated to the Superior Courts of the Italian States and, at the same time, to a conference on the “Grandi Tribunali e Rote” (Macerata, 1990) where the results of the latest research were set out. During the following decades, further studies have valuably deepened and clarified some of the aspects of the previous work (Miletti, Vallone, Romano, Savelli, Massetto, Monti). Such a new interest in the Superior Courts of the Early-Modern period has led legal historians to acknowledge the high authority of the Great Tribunals of the Italian area: between them, the Sacra Rota Romana, the other ecclesiastical Rote of Central and Northern Italy (e.g., the Rote of Bologna, Florence, Genoa, etc.), the Sacro Regio Consiglio of Naples, the Senati of Milan and Turin. Created or restored – between the half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th – as a part of an absolutist policy of centralization directed to unify law through the enforcement of jurisdiction, they were invested with so called “sovereign” powers. Infact, the decisions of these Supreme Courts, attended by trained, professional judges appointed by the monarch and invested with the power to judge in his name, were normally regarded – notwithstanding the diversity of powers, competences and procedures peculiar to each tribunal – as final. For what particularly concerns the Reign of Naples, a few 20th century studies – the first one dating back to the 1920s (Pescione), the others to the 1970s (Comparato, Ryder) and the 1990s (Colussi) – have been dedicated to the Neapolitan Supreme Courts other than the Sacro Regio Consiglio. Following to a process of centralization of government and jurisdiction started already during the 12th century by the Normans and followed first by the Svevis and then by the Angevins, the Great Tribunals of the Sacro Regio Consiglio, the Gran Corte della Vicarìa and the Regia Camera della Sommaria were established by the Aragons in the Reign. These Superior Courts, often conflicting between each other, were destined to survive until the half of the 18th century. The Sacro Regio Consiglio was the most powerful and authoritative court of the Reign of Naples. Its origins, competence and role have been investigated, first during the 1960s (Cassandro) and – more recently and with particular reference to its jurisprudence – by Marco Miletti and Giancarlo Vallone. The exact date of foundation of the Great Tribunal is not certain: nevertheless, most legal historians agree that, although its structure and functions were specified during the second half of the 15th and the first quarter of the 16th century, the Supreme Court was created between 1444 and 1449 by Alfonso of Aragon. The Sacro Regio Consiglio enjoyed a real praeminentia on every other court of the Reign, its authority being equal only to the authority of the king. So the Supreme Court – whose decisions were final and binding not only for the court itself, but also for all the inferior courts of the Reign – judged in civil and criminal matters in nomine regio, veritate atque aequitate, either as a court of first instance and as an appellate court. The Gran Corte della Vicarìa derived from the merger, wanted by Alfonso of Aragon around 1450, of two courts of justice previously existent: the Norman Corte del Gran Giustiziere (or Gran Corte) on one side, and the Angevin Corte del Vicario (or Corte Vicària) on the other. The new Supreme Court was competent in civil and criminal matters: as a court of first instance, for the city of Naples and the surrounding area (the province of Terra di Lavoro); as an appellate court, for the decisions of all the inferior courts of the Reign. The Gran Corte della Vicarìa had an exclusive jurisdiction in matter of crimes committed by public officers, and it was hierarchically subjected – at least theoretically – to the Sacro Regio Consiglio. Besides, with time some of its prerogatives passed to the inferior courts of the Reign and, at the same time, it was deprived of the jurisdiction in matter of public finance by the Regia Camera della Sommaria. The origins of the Regia Camera della Sommaria have been traced by legal historians back to the Gran Camerario of the Norman Period, an officer who had the duty to administer the finances of the Reign and who, during the Angevin Period, acquired the power of jurisdiction in matter of public finance. The Regia Camera della Sommaria, established by Alfonso of Aragon around the half of the 15th century and attended by jurisperiti and accountants, was endowed not only with maxima auctoritas in the administrative and financial matters, but also with a broad power of control over the activity of the other courts, together with a competence in civil and criminal matters. Besides, the Camera Sommaria – whose decreta were final and binding – was an appellate court for the decisions of the inferior courts in matter of public finance. Many projects of reform, aimed to the regulation of the relationships between the Supreme Court and the other Great Tribunals of the Reign, invested the Regia Camera della Sommaria during the first half of the 16th century, projects supported by an emerging tribunal interested in the limitation of power of the other courts: the Consiglio Collaterale. The Consiglio Collaterale started its activity after the foundation of the Viceregno of Naples in 1504. The acquisition of the Reign on the part of the Austrias required a vicar of the persona principis able to exercise the political, legislative and jurisdictional powers in his name: the Vicerè. The Vicerè was, in fact, the most powerful authority of the Reign in matter of justice, being above the observance of the ordo judiciarius itself. According to legal historians, although the origins of the Collaterale are generally dated back to the Angevin and Aragonese Periods (to the Cancelleria and the Regia Audientia), the potestas of the Vicerè become so wide during the first half of the 16th century that it “required” the creation of a new authority to balance it: hence the birth of the Consiglio Collaterale, a council of sacerdotes juris endowed with judiciary and advisory powers. These powers increased so much during the century that the Collaterale become the most important political and administrative authority of the Reign, destined to “fight” against the other Supreme Courts (in particular, against the Sacro Regio Consiglio) for the exercise of jurisdiction. Besides the Great Tribunals, in the twelve provinces of the Neapolitan Reign there were the inferior courts: the Udienze provinciali and the Courts of Barons. Derived from the Corti dei Giustizieri, established by the Normans to administer justice in the provinces of the Reign and subjected to the Corte del Gran Giustiziere, the Udienze provinciali were ordinary courts created during the Aragonese Period, endowed with civil and criminal jurisdiction. Their powers were partially limited by the Courts of Barons, who had received the merum et mixtum imperium (i.e. the jurisdiction over their tenants) since 1443 by Alfonso of Aragon. The Courts of Barons were, as well as the Ecclesiastical Courts (Tribunali vescovili and Corte del Cappellano maggiore), a special jurisdiction concurring with the summa potestas principis.