Concetto di democrazia e ruolo del giudice nella tutela dell’elettorato attivo dei condannati

Comparative law underlines a variety of models of felony disenfranchisement. This essay analyses the different approaches developed in the constitutional adjudication of such models, taking into considerations precedents from USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the ECtHR, in particular analysing also the Italian and the United Kingdom supreme courts’ attitude towards the ECHR interpretation in this field. It emerges a role of the judiciary more active in the protection of individual rights or of the sovereignty, that is linked to different notions of democracy, as a method or as a value.