Luciano Violante

Interview

• "The Internet bertween deputies and citizens: how the Web can improve the relationship with the political world" (Rome,  18/02/1999)

Biography

Luciano Violante, professor of legal institutions and penal procedure, is a PDS (Democratic Party of the Left) deputy. He was born in Dire Daua (Ethiopia) 25 September 1941.
His father, a journalist and Communist, was forced to emigrate to Ethiopia; his family was interned by the British in a concentration camp, where Violante was born and remained until 1943. Graduating in law in Bari in 1963, he joined the magistrature in 1966.
In 1970 he became a lecturer in criminal law at the University of Turin, where, from 1974 al 1981, he taught legal institutions. He has been an examining magistrate in Turin since 1977.
From 1977 to 1979 he worked in the legislative office of the Ministry of Justice, primarily concerned with the struggle against terrorism. He has been a deputy since 1979, first for the PCI (Italian Communist Party), which he joined the same year, then the PDS.
In 1983 he became a professor of legal institutions and penal procedure and resigned from the magistrature. From 1980 to 1987 he was the PCI spokesman for legal policy. He then became vice-president of the parliamentary group. He was a member of the Inquiry into the Aldo Moro case, of the Anti-Mafia Commission, the parliamentary committee for the security services, the commission for the reform of the penal code, the Justice Commission and the Council for the Regulation of the House of Deputies.
He was President of the Anti-Mafia Commission from September 1992 al March 1994. From 1994 to 1996 he was Vice-President of the House of Deputies.
On 10 May 1996 he was elected President of the House of Deputies. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia and institutional reform.

Bibliography

As well as books on law and penal procedure, he is the author of two books of interviews: La mafia dell'eroina, Editori Riuniti, 1987 e I corleonesi, l'Unità, 1993. He has also published: Il piccone e la quercia, Edizioni Associate, 1992; Non è la piovra, Einaudi, 1995 and a poem: Cantata per i bambini morti di mafia, Bollati Boringhieri, 1995. He is editor of: Dizionario delle istituzioni e dei diritti del cittadino, Editori Riuniti, 1996, Mafie e antimafia - Rapporto 1996, e Mafia e società italiana - Rapporto 1997, I soldi della mafia - Rapporto 1998, Laterza.. He also edited two volumes of the "Annali della Storia d'Italia": La criminalità, 1997, and Legge Diritto Giustizia.
In 1998 he published L'Italia dopo il 1999. La sfida per la stabilità, Mondadori 1998.