Full Description
Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context is the first book ever published in English to provide an international examination of the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC), offering a comprehensive analysis of its principal lines of jurisprudence, historical origins, organization, procedures, and its current engagement with transnational European law. The ItCC represents one of the strongest and most successful examples of constitutional judicial review, and is distinctive in its structure, institutional dimensions, and well-developed jurisprudence. Moreover, the ItCC has developed a distinctive voice among global constitutional actors in its adjudication of a broad range of topics from fundamental rights and liberties to the allocations of governmental power and regionalism. Nevertheless, in global constitutional dialog, the voice of the ItCC has been almost entirely absent due to a relative lack of both English translations of its decisions and of focused scholarly commentary in English.
This book describes the "Italian Style" in global constitutional adjudication, and aims to elevate Italian constitutional jurisprudence to an active participant role in global constitutional discourse. The authors have carefully structured the work to allow the ItCC's own voice to emerge. It presents broad syntheses of major areas of the Court's case law, provides excerpts from notable decisions in a narrative and analytical context, addresses the tension between the ItCC and the Court of Cassation, and positions the development, character, and importance of the ItCC's jurisprudence in the larger arc of global judicial dialog.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
PART I: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION
1. Constitutional justice prior to 1948
2. American-style constitutional review during the post-war transition
3. A complex conception: Designing the Constitutional Court
4. A long gestation: The activation of the Court
5. The birth of a new system of constitutional adjudication
6. Taking a deep breath: The Court's relationship to the body politic
7. The "eras" of the Constitutional Court
8. The present and future of the Court: constitutional justice in global context
CHAPTER 2: The Constitutional Court: rules and model
1. The system of constitutional justice designed by the Constituent Assembly
2. Composition
3. Jurisdiction
4. The system of judicial review
5. Acts that are subject to judicial review
6. The Italian model of judicial review: "Cooperative" and "Networked"
CHAPTER 3: FORMS AND METHODS OF JUDICIAL REASONING
1. A concurrent plurality of methods of interpretation
2. Reasonabless, proportionality and balancing of values
3. The use of transnational law and comparative method
4. The decisions of the constitutional court and their effects
PART II: CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE
CHAPTER 4: KEY RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
1. The rights and duties of citizens in the Constitution
2. The fundamental principles of inviolability and equality
3. Personal liberty
4. Freedom of religion
5. Life, reproduction, health
6. Family
7. Social rights
8. Citizens and migrants
CHAPTER 5: POWERS AND CONFLICTS
1. Relations of powers and the unique role of the Judiciary
2. Executive vs. President of the Republic
3. Executive vs. Parliament
4. Judiciary vs. Parliament
5. Judiciary vs. President of the Republic
CHAPTER 6: REGIONALISM
1. Not "federal" but "regional"
2. The 2001 constitutional reform of the regional system
3. Statutory autonomy
4. Legislative autonomy
5. Administrative Autonomy: The principle of subsidarity
6. Financial Autonomy
CHAPTER 7: NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION IN THE EUROPEAN SPACE
1. The European Clauses of the Italian Constitution
2. The Constitutional Court and the European Union
3. The Constitutional Court and the European Convention on Human Rights
Appendix I: The Constitution of the Republic of Italy
Appendix II: Justices 1955 to present
Appendix III: Basic Statistics on the Constitutional Court
Table of Cases
Index
