Segretezza e procedura del sistema inquisitoriale del Consiglio dei Dieci: avvio di una riflessione

What idea of the use made of secrecy emerges from the Venetian criminal system? Together with the satellite courts and local mainland city courts, the Council of Ten developed its repressive action through inquisitorial proceedings, which used secret judicial inquiry and torture as a means of extorting confessions, while it did not provide for the legal defense of the accused. Thus, secrecy acquired a symbolic value, representing the political power of the judicial authority. Secrecy, within the framework of criminal trial proceedings, was perhaps also a way of guaranteeing the safety of the witnesses and the truth of the evidence, and therefore, implicitly, the sought-after legitimacy of the proceedings. The Venetian criminal trialwas experienced as a search for simplification, a synonym of rapidity and therefore of the efficacious union of the written code with the justice of the Prince. Resorting to the secret communication of depositions and secret preliminary investigations made the Venetian judicial system less respectful of the strategy of maintaining the social «inequality» of the «order» of society.