Decision of the Court of Cassation, United Sections, No. 16601 of 5 July 2017

By this decision, the Court of Cassation decided in favor of the enforcement in Italy of three judgments issued in the US and, thus, rejecting the arguments of the recourse about the alleged violation of the rights of the defense in the relating proceedings. The Court also ruled that a decision on ‘punitive damages’ does is compatible with the Italian legal order, although punitive damages are not among the main purposes of civil proceedings on compensation (on this issue, the Court issued a statement concerning the state of the law, embedded in section 8 of the judgment). Consequently, the judicial decisions from US Courts at stake were not such as infringe the international public order. Concerning the progressive development of EU norms taking the place of private international law, the Court further examined whether EU law can be an obstacle to the enforcement in Italy of judicial decisions issued in an EU non-member State, in the event that these decisions ground on norms and principles that have no correspondence in Italian law.