Conscientious Objection of Public Officials in the Italian Legal System

The contrast between the power of the State and the rights of citizens can be analyzed from different points of view, one of which is the opposition between the mandatory rules and the right of the people to follow their most intimate ideals. This situation is more serious when the person who must apply the law is a State employee. Such public official must implement the norms without considering his own opinions, but in special cases he can obtain an excuse, called conscientious objection, based on his own ideals. In this research we’ll try to answer the following question: public officials following the dictates of their office, in which cases can turn to their ideals with the aim of not applying the law (right to access to conscientious objection)? At the end, after the description of the Italian legal system as a study model, we will demonstrate how the divergent opinion of scholars and judges complicates the situation for public officials and citizens; on the other hand, following the most compatible opinions with human rights, implementing the rights of citizens and the principle of the inderogability of public services, we can outline the characteristics of a legal system in which the conscientious objection of all public officials is fully recognized .