issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 156 (2017)
18.05.2017
Judgments and decisions of 18 May 2017
The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing 13 judgments1 and 68 decisions2:
two Chamber judgments are summarised below; a separate press release has been issued for one
other Chamber judgment in the case of Jóhannesson and Others v. Iceland (application
no. 22007/11);
ten Committee judgments, concerning issues which have already been submitted to the Court, and
The judgments in French below are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Petrie v. Italy (application no. 25322/12)*
The applicant, David Petrie, is a United Kingdom national who was born in 1951 and lives in Verona.
He is Chair of the Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy (ALLSI).
The case concerned the dismissal of an action for defamation brought by Mr Petrie.
On 26 February 1997, at a hearing of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament concerning the position of non-Italian foreign lecturers working in Italian universities,
Mr Petrie made the following remarks: “Now, how does this happen ? It happens because there is a
system in Italy, and it’s difficult to translate, the word is ‘raccomandazioni’, it comes from the word
‘to recommend’.” X, Director-General of the department for university autonomy in the Italian
Ministry of Universities and Scientific and Technological Research, and Y, a university
Vice-Chancellor, were also present at the meeting.
On 23 January 1998 Mr Petrie took part in a public meeting organised by the University of Bologna
during which X stated that “a lecturer present in the auditorium [had] accused Italy, in the European
Parliament Committee in Brussels, of being a country run by the Mafia”. Believing himself to have
been accused, Mr Petrie replied that he had never used the word “Mafia”, and asked X to withdraw
his remarks. Y then intervened, claiming that X’s remarks were true. X and Y refused to withdraw
their statements.
On 4 July 1998 Mr Petrie brought an action for damages in the Bologna District Court against X and
Y, claiming that they had attributed remarks to him which he had never made and that his
reputation, honour and personal identity had been damaged. On 6 April 2002 the District Court
allowed his claims, finding that Mr Petrie had not said that Italy was “a country run by the Mafia”. It
ordered X and Y jointly to pay Mr Petrie 19,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and
EUR 6,520 in legal costs. X and Y appealed against that judgment to the Bologna Court of Appeal,
which allowed their appeal and dismissed Mr Petrie’s action for defamation. Mr Petrie was ordered
to repay the court costs incurred by X and Y (EUR 4,500). He appealed unsuccessfully on points
of law.
1
Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber
judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a
panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and
deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the
Convention, judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution
2
Inadmissibility and strike-out decisions are final.
