Corte di Cassazione, Sezioni Unite, 5 luglio 2017, n. 16601

In the current legal system, the purpose of civil liability law is not just to make the victim of a tort whole again, since the functions of deterrence and punishment are also inherent in the system. The American doctrine of punitive damages is therefore not ontologically contrary to the Italian legal system. However, the recognition of a foreign judgment awarding such damages is subject to the condition that the judgment has been rendered in accordance with some legal provisions of the foreign law guaranteeing the standardization of cases in which they may be awarded (tipicità), their predictability, and their outer quantitative limits. The enforcing court must focus solely on the effects of the foreign judgment and on their compatibility with public policy.