ABSTRACT
The Italian Constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights, such as the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to own and enjoy property, the right to enjoy family life, to work, and so on. Each one of these constitutional rights has as its object something which is to be protected, namely life, physical integrity, property, family relationship, livelihood, which can for want of a better term be called a good, a benefit or an asset. The criminal law is classified as part of the public law of the State, even though its primary concern is with wrongs, interferences with rights, committed by private individuals against one another. It is classed as part of public law because the right interfered with is one which the State has guaranteed and for which, as a result, only the State can bring a prosecution.
