La “prima porta”. Riflessioni sull’accesso alle Corti da parte dei non abbienti

The purpose of the paper is to call attention to the evolution and main features of the political and legal models developed, in the Western legal traditional, with regard to the problems of the poor‘s access to courts. The author underlines how the debate on legal aid opens a space to reconsider the lawyer’s role as charged by public functions. This apparent advantage for justice could risk both decreasing the lawyer’s “partiality” and obscuring the fact that access to defence is, to use a kafkaesque image, only the “first” door through which the poor in search in justice must pass. Moreover, the normative solutions offered in the form of legal aid have concentrated (with some important exceptions) almost exclusively on the provision of expert help, without being concerned to explore, on the one hand, “intrasystemic” measures (in order, for example, to semplify legal language and to reduce court fees) and, on the other hand, alternative forms of access to justice.