Revista da EMERJ - V. 21 - N. 2 - Maio/Agosto - 2019

17  R. EMERJ, Rio de Janeiro, v. 21, n. 2, p. 11-39, Maio-Agosto, 2019  on points of law 15 and ensuring “the exact observance and the uniform interpretation of the law” 16 . The Italian Constitution provides for a right to review by the Corte di cassazione on grounds of violation of law. 17 Due to the extensive use of this guarantee, the number of appeals to the Corte di cassazione has increased dramatically in the last decades. Just over 3,000 appeals were submitted an- nually during the 1960s. In the 1980s the number had grown to more than 10,000 in civil cases only. 18 In 2013, there were 29,091 civil cases lodged to the Court for review. In the same year the Court disposed of 30,179 civil cases. At the end of the year there were 98,690 civil cases pending. 19 One can ascertain the clearance rate concerning the Supreme Court for 2013. This performance indicator can be used to see if the courts are keeping up to date with the number of incoming cases without increasing their backlog. 20 The clearance rate, expressed as a percentage, is obtained when the number of resolved cases is divided by the number of incom- ing cases and the result is multiplied by 100. In 2013, the clearance rate amounted to 103, the Corte di cassazione is thus decreasing its backlog. Apart from the clearance rate indicator – following the CEPEJ ap- proach – the disposition time indicator can provide further insight into how the Supreme Court manages its flow of cases. This indicator, ex- pressed as a timeframe in days, is obtained when the number of unre- solved cases at the end of a period (normally a year) is divided by the number of resolved cases in the same period and the result is multiplied 15 Cf. Art. 360 c.p.c. (Code of Civil Procedure). Cf. M. De Cristofaro , N. Trocker (eds.), Civil Justice in Italy, Nagoya Uni- versity Comparative Study of Civil Justice, 2010, p. 24 ff. 16 Art. 65 r.d. no. 12 of 1941 (Law on judicial organisation, ordinamento giudiziario ). 17 Cf. Art. 111, para 7 Const. 18 Cf. M. De Cristofaro, N. Trocker (eds.), Civil Justice in Italy, p. 26, Footnote no. 24. 19 Cf. Ministero della giustizia , Piano della performance 2015–2017, www.giustizia.it, p. 15. 20 Cf. CEPEJ , Report on European Judicial Systems – Edition 2014 (2012 Data): Efficiency and Quality of Justice, www. coe.int, p. 190: “A clearance rate close to 100 % indicates the ability of the court or of a judicial system to resolve more or less as many cases as the number of incoming cases within the given time period. A clearance rate above 100 % indicates the ability of the system to resolve more cases than received, thus reducing any potential backlog. Finally, if the number of incoming cases is higher than the number of resolved cases, the clearance rate will fall below 100 %. When a clearance rate goes below 100 %, the number of unresolved cases at the end of a reporting period (backlog) will rise”.