Ludovico Fulci

Ludovico Fulci was born in Santa Lucia del Mela, a small municipality located in the hills to the west of the provincial capital, Messina. He was the son of Antonio Fulci by his marriage to Nicolina Taccone, who was also of aristocratic provenance.[4] The Fulci of Santa Lucia del Mela were a family from the minor nobility, originally from Tropea. They had moved from Calabria to Sicily during the sixteenth century. Ludovico's father, Antonio Fulci, was a lawyer who also held a teaching chair in Civil law at the University of Messina.[1] Ludovico was a family name which he shared both with his uncle and with his grandfather.

Ludovico graduated with a degree in law from the University of Messina and in 1873 launched himself as a criminal lawyer. He also sustained an academic interest in the law, evidenced by the publication in 1879 of his brief but challenging volume "Di alcuni problemi giuridici fondamentali" (loosely, "On some fundamental legal problems"). The book is concerned less with his professional speciality - criminal law - and more with the underlying philosophy of civil law. Themes tackled include the nature of the state, the very concept of law and the complex interaction between law and morality.[1] He obtained a professorship in criminal law at the university in 1891.[3]

Meanwhile, on 29 October 1882 the electoral college for Messina elected him to membership of the Chamber of Deputies ("Camera dei deputati"), the elected lower house of the Italian parliament. He was re-elected at no fewer than nine subsequent general elections, the last of them being that of 18 July 1909. Political parties within the parliament during this period were still relatively loose groupings, but Ludovico Fulci is normally classified in sources as a Radical Party member.[3] In 1908 he voted for the contentious Bissolati motion which sought to outlaw religious education in primary schools.[5] Fulci combined his university teaching and his national political duties with membership of the Provincial Council for Messina, of which he became vice-president.[1][6] and, eventually, president.[7]

One project in which he was closely involved during this period involved a new aqueduct constructed for Messina.[7] A college of arbitration was created to settle some of the disputes arising from the project, in which Fulci appeared as the lawyer representing the municipality. His success in winning a major dispute on behalf of the municipal authorities significantly accelerated the aqueduct's completion.[1][8]

Fulci's advocacy skills were also on display when he teamed up with fellow-lawyer Francesco Crispi to head up the defence team for the posthumous retrial as to facts held at the assize court in Rome, following the execution in Trieste of Guglielmo Oberdan. Trieste at this time was still an Austrian city subjugated, according to Italian nationalists, to a form of illegitimate military occupation. Oberdan's alleged crime was that he had plotted to assassinate the Austrian emperor. His last words were "viva Italia!" and he accordingly rapidly acquired martyr status among patriotic Italians. Fulci may not have shared Crispi's (late-flowering) monarchist sentiments, but he was just as much of an Italian patriot.[1]

Following the 1887 cholera epidemic, Fulci founded "The Golden Cross" ("La croce d'oro"), a large-scale public assistance organisation. Recognition followed in the form of a Silver Medal of Public Health and Welfare.[1][8]

He was part of the parliamentary sub-committee that produced the final draft of the new 1887 Criminal Procedure Code. This involved him in heated disagreements of principal over whether the opportunity should be taken to insert in the new code a right for judges to order the hospitalisation of accused parties following a "not guilty" verdict based on mental incapacity. The provision was retained in article 46 of the code, but triggered on-going disputes between those adhering rigidly to a belief that a judge's role in a criminal trial should cease at the point of determinable of guilt or innocence, and others who considered the new provision indispensable, basing their arguments on new positivist theories of a "social defence".[1] Fulci's arguments reveal a delight in the legal and moral complexities involved, but he was not in favour of extending the role of the judge in a criminal trial beyond point at which guilt or innocence are to be determined.[9]

Fulci's monograph "L'evoluzione del diritto penale. La forza irresistibile" (loosely, "The evolution of criminal law. The irresistible force") appeared in 1891 and was still in print 90 years later.[10] It was considered an important contribution to legal doctrine, notably by Cesare Lombroso and by Francesco Carrara who wrote a warmly appreciative critique of it shortly before his death.[1]

By the time of the 1913 general election Fulci was 63, which may be one reason why he withdrew from politics, not standing for election. 1913 was also the year in which he married Rosa Guerrera.[3]

He nevertheless accepted nomination as a senator on 6 October 1919. The nomination came automatically according to various sets of criteria. In Fulci's case it was because he had retired after serving as an elected member of the Chamber of Deputies during three parliaments, and been a deputy for more than six years. Either criterion would have secured an invitation to join the senate, but it would still have been open to Fulci to reject the offer which, formally, came from the king. His admission to the senate followed on 9 December 1919.[3][2] He was formally sworn in on 27 December 1919.[3]

Ludovico Fulci died at Messina on 28 June 1934. When parliament reconvened towards the end of the year he was one of three recently deceased long-serving former deputies who had subsequently become senators [lower-alpha 2] to be honoured with a [lower-alpha 3] tribute delivered by Luigi Federzoni, the President of the Senate, in an address to the chamber following the opening of the session at 16.00 on 3 December 1934. Federzoni recalled in particular the energy and prescience (..."il fervore e chiaroveggenza") which Fulci had displayed in the aftermath of the earthquake which devastated Messina in 1908, along with his unstinting contributions to the arguments and disputes on the legal and financial aspects of the massive reconstruction necessary.[2] There were nevertheless persistent rumours that Senator Fulci died because he was poisoned on account of his known hostility to Fascism. His advocacy of secularism did not sit well with the statism advocated by the Fascists. Ever since the murder in 1924 of Matteotti, it had been clear to everyone that for a politician to voice criticism of the Fascists was, in terms of personal safety, unwise.[11][12]