Destinatari della norma penale e riconoscibilità del comando-divieto

The idea of the norm as a command, resulting from imperativism, has influenced not only the general theory of law, but also the reconstruction of the fundamental principles of Criminal Law and the general theory of crime. Moving from the traditional (but often “forgotten”) topic of the addressees of the criminal rules, the paper proposes an alternative to the traditional doctrines, arguing that the criminal norm is addressed to an ideal model of interpreter. Among the most significant results is that of tracing the requirement of recognisability of the criminal rule back to the side of legality rather than culpability, also through a different role played by Article 5 of the Italian Criminal Code. Moreover, with specific regard to the so-called culturally oriented crimes, is argued a normative-objective approach, especially to downgrade the risk of a misleading centrality attributed to “conflict of motivation”.