The Italian Constitutional Court Case Law on Competition Law and Free Trade within the Framework of the European Union Legal System

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyzes the path paved by the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) in order to reconcile the series of its inconsistent judgments dealing with free trade, right to economic initiative, and freedom of competition. For this purpose, this article aims at investigating the role of the Italian Constitutional Court in the ‘constitutionalization’ of free trade and freedom of competition and at assessing the relationship between European Union policies and the Constitutional Court interpretation thereof. The last decade demonstrates, on the one hand, that the European Union law has influenced the domestic case law and, on the other hand, that, in turn, the European Union legal system has been ‘constitutionalized’ through the introduction of social and constitutional principles deriving from the Member States’ Constitutions.