"Non è la morte il peggiore dei mali": il domicilio coatto nell'Italia liberale

In the wake of the Unification, the Kingdom of Italy had to deal with the terrifying ‘plague’ of the ‘brigantaggio’. For the purpose of eradicating this social emergency, the deputy Giuseppe Pica proposed a wide array of legal instruments among which an important role was played by the forced residence. This practice of preventative policing in Liberal Italy would frequently employed for various objectives. It was applied to socialists, anarchists (by means of the Anti-anarchy laws) and to the suspects of connivence with the enemy (‘austriacantismo’). Against this backdrop, the voice of a socialist imprisoned within the colony of Lipari stood out. Ettore Croce, detained for the participation in the uprisings of the 1898, is the author of two essays about his terrible experience. This works condensed all the criticisms against the forced residence, by mentioning the positions of eminent jurists and politicians. They represent a real Manifesto of the abolition of this instrument. Although disapproved, this transient and temporary measure would become stable and permanent, throughout the First World War (internamento), the Fascist Epoch (confino) and even the Republican Era.