Court-ordered Apologies: A View of the Italian Legal System

The article analyses the issue of the possibility of a Court-ordered apology, as a form of compensation for moral damages in the Italian legal system. Assuming that the judgment can be based on the rule of the civil code that allows compensation in specific form (art. 2058), this possibility is investigated in the light of a double perspective. First, the hypothesis that the compensation in specific form of non-pecuniary damage (art. 2059, civil code) is admissible is examined. Once this perspective is admitted, some limits that could affect apologies arise. As a performance, object of the compensation obligation, apologies could be found incompatible with some constitutional guarantees (right to freedom of expression, due process clause). Finally, the author points out, thanks to a comparative argument and the reference to recent German doctrine, the admissibility of a solution, based on the claimant's request to issue a judgment of an alternative and optional nature (between a sum of money, as moral damages, and apologies).