Anti-mafia confiscation against corruption: the new frontier of human rights

The Italian lawmakers have recently extended the anti-Mafia non conviction based confiscation to the persons suspected of belonging to a criminal association aimed to corruption or to the commission of various crimes against public administration. This provision, although apparently in line with the tendency increasingly widespread on a supranational level to use instruments of a broadly preventive character to fight serious crimes, raises some issues, especially in terms of compliance with human rights protection. Indeed, although these measures focus on property and not on individuals, in many cases they significantly affect the life and well being of the people involved. After analysing the European Court of Human Right (ECtHR) case law on administrative measures having criminal nature and on Anti-Mafia non conviction based confiscation, the article investigates the legitimacy of the extension of this specific form of non-conviction based confiscation to the crimes against public administration.