EL TRIBUNAL CONSTITUCIONAL ITALIANO: UN BALANCE DE SU TRAYECTORIA Y RETOS ACTUALES

The Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) has shown a recent trend towards a “re-centralization” of constitutional review. This inclination represents the Court’s attempt to “regain” the space that it had conceded to both national and supranational judges, but it also lies within a wider perspective, which includes the legal, political, cultural, and social context within which the Court works. In fact, although the national rules regulating the ItCC’s functions remain unaltered, the latter’s role seems nevertheless to change across time, thus suggesting that change occurs elsewhere. In other words, as the context changes so do the Court’s role, its case-law, and its jurisprudential practice. The second thesis the Author emphasizes is the idea that the context deeply affects the development of the ItCC’s doctrines. An understanding of the past becomes helpful to comprehend both the present and the dynamics that underlie the Court’s relationship with the legislator, ordinary judges, and the doctrine. An overview of the past is also useful to highlight that the ItCC’s peculiarities surfaced from the very beginning of its experience, and that it was through those same characteristics that the Court strengthened its action and role. Although the national rules regulating the Court’s functions remain unaltered, the latter’s role and doctrines seem nevertheless to change across time; this is because it is the context that changes. The first and second thesis come together and merge into the third and final one, which conveys the idea that the judicial seasons’ diversities, as well as the doctrines’ evolutions across time, reflect the ItCC’s constant attempt to hoard as much legitimization as possible. Although it is still not possible to fully grasp the achievements produced by the judicial season of “re-centralization” that is still under way, it is fair to say that the Court has proved to be not merely a sentinel that guards the borders between functions and powers, but rather a body that is fully merged within the context, greatly influenced by it and deeply concerned with keeping constitutionally sound and efficient relations among powers. For what concerns its relationship with political discretion, the evolution of its doctrines has opened the door to possible conflicts with the legislator, as well as with ordinary judges and the EU legal order; however, these frictions have always existed and they have repeatedly surfaced in the history of the Italian legal order.