ABSTRACT
This chapter will analyse some prominent cases of requests for, and recognitions of, exemptions from legal obligations in Italy. Exemptions from the law may take different forms (group exemption, individual exemption on pre-established grounds, conscientious objection [CO]). However, in Italy, for reasons to be explored below, exemptions have almost always been accorded as rights to object on the grounds of conscience. If this reflects an uncompromising liberal commitment to the priority of individual freedom and conscience, then difficulties arise: institutions cannot in practice accord a general right to conscientiously object to any law, as this would jeopardise the force and sense of the legal system. There are two main problems:
1 The admissibility of a right to conscientiously object to a law cannot be established once and for all as new requests may emerge each time there is a radical conflict between someone’s conscience and a legal duty.
