Gherardo Colombo, Judge and Public Prosecutor,
gave a lecture on
“Non sono stato io! – It wasn’t me!”
On Thu 26 January, 2012
“What is your relationship with the rules?” “Are rules always only an obligation?” “When are the rules not simply a duty?” These are some of the questions Gherardo Colombo asked the students, inviting them to think about rules, duties, rights, and freedom.
He also focused on the relationship between rights and duties: “Sometimes – he says – it is difficult to follow the rules, if you see them only as duties”.
For Gherardo Colombo, it is also crucial the relationship between freedom and punishment. He left the students with two questions: is it possible to educate people to be free and responsible, using punishment? Is there some alternative?
On the speaker:
Gherardo Colombo was one of the Italian leading public prosecutors and judges. In his 33 years long career he handled some of the country’s most important trials. Since his resignation in 2007, Colombo has been engaging in the area of education: his activities include meeting students from primary schools to universities to explain the role everyone has in the promotion of a culture of lawfulness. Colombo is convinced that justice involves much more than punishment for the infraction of rules. However, a model of justice as a source of equality and rights cannot work if the relationship between citizen and rules is unbalanced.
