SOMMARIO: 1. La critica della (non) critica della ragion giuridica – 2. Il riesame del merito: un pericolo incombente – 3. La rilevabilità d'ufficio delle questioni di contrarietà all'ordine pubblico – 4. Le inquietanti derive delle corti di merito – 5. Il riproporsi di una vexata quaestio, ossia il divieto di attività istruttoria – 6. Per una soluzione definitiva di una storia infinita.

Conjugal life as an obstacle to the exequatur procedure of the ecclesiastical sentences of nullity of marriage in the light of the latest jurisprudence

The statement of the Supreme Court in the decision n. 1343/2011, according to which − contrary to what has been stated by the Supreme Court itself in the decision n. 4700/1988 and in all the subsequent rulings − conjugal life represents an obstacle to the exequatur procedure of the ecclesiastical sentences of nullity of marriage − otherwise this procedure would be inconsistent with the principles of public policy − seems destined to be supported in the future, despite the recent negative position expressed by the upreme Court in the decision n. 8926/2012. Even if some Authors consider what has been said above a breach of the prohibition of review of a judgment on the merits, the Supreme Court states that the only limit for the Court within the exequatur procedure is represented by the Canon res judicata, in which investigations on conjugal life are not included. Moreover, this issue would be raised ex officio by both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, provided that, in the latter case, the facts related to the conjugal life have been established within the sentence under impugnment. In this perspective, many of the Courts recent judgments seem to be controversial. Besides, there are problems regarding limitations of the investigatory powers of the Judge of the exequatur procedure and the prohibition on obtaining the documents related to the ecclesiastical judgement. The final solution could come from a ruling of the Joint Committee set up within the Agreement signed by the State and the Catholic Church in 1984.