Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context

Abstract

This is the first book published in English to provide to an international audience a comprehensive examination of the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) and its principal lines of jurisprudence, historical origins, current engagement with transnational European law, organization, and procedures. In global constitutional dialogue, the voice of the ItCC has been entirely absent due to a relative lack of both English translations of its decisions and of focused scholarly commentary in English. 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 unique 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. The goal of this book is to elevate Italian constitutional jurisprudence into an active participant role in global constitutional discourse and describe the “Italian style” in global constitutional adjudication. 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 situates the development, character, and importance of the ItCC’s jurisprudence in the larger arc of global judicial dialogue.