L’accertamento del nesso causale nelle malattie professionali

The thesis aims to analyze the major issues related to the establishment of a causal link in the trials for occupational diseases, in order to verify if the use of criminal law still represents a viable option. The difficulties on the evidence related to the establishment of causation in occupational diseases are closely related to the role of scientific evidence in criminal proceedings. When the science can not provide clear answers to the questions asked by the judge he will be unable to reach a verdict. Therefore, this context of scientific uncertainty has led the Italian case law to the definitive renunciation of criminal prosecution. However, this renunciation would have serious consequences as criminal law has an important function in the prevention system. There are two possible ways: on the one hand, there is the solution proposed by the Public Prosecutor of Turin, based on the enhancement of the cases of danger existing in our system and configuration of a "harm to the people". Second, the evidentiary difficulties in establishing the causal link could be overcome by using an alternative establishment of the victim. By using this institution, it is possible to convict the employer without a complete identification of each victim. In other words, the numerical proportion of sick workers epidemiologically identified would be attributed to the employer, without specifying each victim’s identity.