Michael, point well taken. I had the pleasure of dealing with many Italian judges and investigating magistrates during the Sicilian mafia prosecutions here and there (including the “Pizza Connection” and the parallel Maxi Processo) in the 80’s and early 90’s. They certainly did have their own agendas, and no one seemed capable of reining them in. (Some, it must be noted, were very brave and brutally killed by Cosa Nostra.) No reason to think that’s changed. What has changed, though, is wider promotion of international law among the international chattering classes. And that seems to be making some judges (mostly, but by no means only, in Europe) even more brazen. A bunch of search warrants issued by one off-the-reservation judge that no one ever really tries to carry out — if that’s what this turns out to be — would just be par for the course. But this is an alarming trend.

Tanti bella cosa, mi amico (and please forgive my very limited and dreadful Italian).