«Senza raddolcirsi al balsamo salutare del tempo». Il fattore cronologico nel dibattito ottocentesco sulla premeditazione

This article retraces the debate among the different Italian legal scholars on the chronological element (time lapse between the conception of the criminal purpose and its execution) traditionally inherent in the category of premeditation during the second half of the Nineteenth century. This theoretical battle between penal schools and doctrinal currents unavoidably was related to the broader debate about the relevance of passions and emotions in the evaluation of criminal responsibility, given a different hierarchy between excusing passions depending on the time to act on an individual: suddenly (blind passions) or slowly (reasoning passions). Moreover, the category of extenuating circumstance of provocation was intertwined with that of premeditation due the time-factor: if the impetus behind provocation is a sudden reaction, on the contrary, premeditation requires time to reflect and plan.