THE CITIZEN AND JUSTICE The Guarantees of Justice Besides its legislative and administrative functions, the Constitution includes the dispensation of justice as a fundamental duty of the State. This consists in guaranteeing the effects and applications of laws relating to various concrete cases. The implementation of this duty is assigned to members of the State's public organs, the whole being called the magistratura. Where the administration of justice particularly relates to the citizen, it should be observed that the Italian Constitution, unlike the majority of other countries' constitutions, formally guarantees (Article 24) ``the right to a judicial defence''. This is classed as an individual right and thus demonstrates that the relationship between the citizen and justice forms one of the cardinal principles of the State as set out in the Constitution. Besides this provision, as further testimony of the importance that the Constitution attaches to this issue, there are dispositions concerning the equality of justice to be guaranteed by the judiciary. The following are guaranteed with particular emphasis: - Independence of the judge, a necessary condition to ensuring his impartiality. The judge, in fact, is only subject to the law and the judiciary, as an order, appears completely independent from the outside, particularly when compared with legislative and executive powers. This means that the justice can express, with full liberty and according to his own judgement, the opinion that seems to him to accord with the law. Such independence also ensures that the judiciary is extraneous to the interest on which it must pronounce. - Natural justice, which ensures that for each case there is a competent judge. Allocation being determined by general criteria fixed in advance by the law and not on the basis of individual cases, so as to avoid any attempts at manipulation. - Right of contradiction, giving to all the opportunity of defending themselves. The judge cannot pronounce sentence until the accused has been informed by an established procedure of the existence of the trial. A further fundamental characteristic of justice is the obligation on the judge to reach a decision. Though justice is considered to have a single function, civil, criminal and administrative element may be distinguished.