In 1929, the Vatican State adopted the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure (“Code”), ap- proved in Italy in1913. This Code is still in force in the Vatican State even if in Italy it was replaced after just a few years of life by the so called "fascist era code” (“codice dell’era fascista”). Even if the Code dates back many years, thank to the several changes made to the text over the time, it not only responds well to the needs of the judicial administration of the smallest state in the world, but is also endowed with legal institutions that, for the time they were conceived, have proved to be really farsighted and can still be considered fully compliant with the essential requirements of the due process of lawset out in art.6 of the ECHR which, although not signed by the Vatican State, can nowadays be considered the fondamental reference to assess the level of equity of the decisions taken by the judicial authority.