An analysis of how 2002 judicial reorganisation has impacted on the performance of the First Instance Courts (Preture) in Ticino

With data from 2001 to 2010 of the First Instance Courts of the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland, this paper examines the impact of Legge sull’istituzione della Pretura penale e della funzione di sostituto Procuratore pubblico (2002), which meant to improve Cantonal court performance by decreasing penal workload. Our results suggest that such law has posed non-positive effects on judicial length and courts’ performance. This work may furnish moreover some intuition about the expected impact of Legge sull’organizzazione giudiziaria (2006), which has adapted cantonal judicial system to new Swiss Civil Procedure Code, as well policy proposals for the cantonal programme known as Giustizia 2018.