Constitutional Judicial Review and International Obligations of Criminalization

Abstract

Abstract The main purpose of this article is to investigate the role that international obligations of criminalization do play and could play in the judicial review carried out by the Italian Constitutional Court. It is divided into three main parts. The Court’s case law is examined first, a general and theoretical appraisal of the Court’s approach follows, and further implications of that approach are taken into account at the end. The author maintains that the Court is quite deferential to international obligations and, despite the significant constitutional constraints surrounding criminal law-making, it seems prepared to let criminalization obligations have various legal effects in the Italian national legal order.