The
Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of
Gazzetta UfficialeThe Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana is the official journal of record of the Italian government...
No. 298 on 27 December 1947. The Constituent Assembly was elected by universal suffrage on 2 June 1946, at the same time as a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy.
The
Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of
Gazzetta UfficialeThe Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana is the official journal of record of the Italian government...
No. 298 on 27 December 1947. The Constituent Assembly was elected by universal suffrage on 2 June 1946, at the same time as a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy. The Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the
Statuto AlbertinoThe Statuto Albertino or Albertine Statute was the constitution that King Charles Albert I of Sardinia conceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia on 4 March 1848....
had been enacted. Although the latter remained in force after the
Benito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
's
March on RomeThe March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...
in 1922, it had become devoid of substantive value. The Constitution previously forbade the male descendants of the former royal family, the
House of SavoyThe House of Savoy was formed in the early eleventh century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy until the end of the Second World War...
, from entering the territory of the Republic, however this provision was repealed in 2002.
Context
The forces that enlivened debate in the Assembly fell into three tendencies, solidaristic christian democratic,
liberalLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
and
left-wingIn politics, left-wing, political left, leftist and the Left are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for changing traditional social orders or for creating a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and privilege...
(socialist/communist). Each deeply anti-fascist, there was general agreement against an authoritarian form of constitution. However, each tendency was concerned about its success in new elections after the promulgation of the Constitution, and fought to insert something reflecting their values; the result was that some aspects of the text (concerning marriage and the family for example) refer to Roman Catholic-orientated christian democratic themes, whilst others (concerning workers' rights for example) are more reminiscent of communist and socialist thinking. This has been repeatedly described as the constitutional compromise.
The Constitution is composed of 139 articles (four of which were later abrogated) and arranged into three main parts:
Principi Fondamentali, or Fundamental Principles (articles 1–12); Part I concerning the
Diritti e Doveri dei Cittadini, or Rights and Duties of Citizens (articles 13–54); and Part II the
Ordinamento della Repubblica, or Organisation of the Republic (articles 55–139); followed by 18
Disposizioni transitorie e finali, or Transitory and Final Provisions. Articles 13–28 are the Italian equivalent of a
bill of rightsA bill of rights is a list of the rights that are considered important and essential by a nation. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement by the government...
in
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
jurisdictions. Power is divided among the executive, the legislative and judicial branches; the Constitution establishes the balancing and interaction of these branches, rather than their rigid separation.
It is important to note that the Constitution primarily contains general principles; it is not possible to apply them directly. As with many written constitutions, only few articles are considered to be self-executing. The majority require enabling legislation, referred to as
accomplishment of constitution. This process has taken decades and some contend that, due to various political considerations, it is still not complete. In order to make it virtually impossible to replace with a dictatorial regime, it is difficult to modify the Constitution; to do so (under Article 138) requires two readings in each House of Parliament and, if the second of these are carried with a simple majority (ie. 50%+1) rather than two-thirds, a referendum. Under Article 139, the republican form of government cannot be reviewed. When the Constituent Assembly drafted the Constitution, it made a deliberate choice in attributing to it a supra-legislative force, so that ordinary legislation could not amend or derogate from it. Legislative acts of parliament in conflict with the Constitution are subsequently annulled by the
Constitutional CourtThe Constitutional Court of Italy is a supreme court of Italy, the other being the Court of Cassation.The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 judges: one-third appointed by the President, one-third elected by Parliament, and one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts...
.
While Article 8 establishes the liberty of all religions before the law, Article 7 recognises the special status given to the Catholic Church by the Lateran Treaty in 1929. That status was modified by a new agreement between church and state in 1984.
Amendments
Three Parliamentary Commissions have been convened in 1983–1985, 1992–1994 and 1997–1998 respectively, with the task of preparing major revisions to the 1948 text (in particular Part II), but in each instance the necessary political consensus for change was lacking.
The text of the Constitution has been amended 14 times. Amendments have affected articles 48 (postal voting), 51 (women's participation), 56, 57 & 60 (composition and length of term of the
Chamber of DeputiesThe Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a majority of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
and
Senate of the RepublicThe Italian Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Italy. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but it existed during the monarchy as Senato del Regno, , continuing from the Subalpine Parliament of Piedmont established on 8 May 1848.The Senate consists of 315 elected...
); 68 (indemnity and immunity of members of Parliament); 79 (amnesties and pardons); 88 (dissolution of the Houses of Parliament); 96 (impeachment); 114 to 132 (Regions, Provinces and Municipalities in its entirety); 134 & 135 (composition and length of term of the Constitutional Court). In 1967 articles 10 and 26 were integrated by a constitutional provision which established that their last paragraphs (which forbid the extradition of a foreigner for political offences) do not apply in case of crimes of genocide.
Four amendments were passed during the thirteenth legislature (1996–2001), these concerned parliamentary representation of Italians living abroad; the devolution of powers to the Regions; the direct election of Regional Presidents; and guarantees of fair trials in courts. A constitutional law and one amendment were also passed in the the fourteenth legislature (2001–2006), namely, the repealing of disposition XIII insofar as it limited the civil rights of the male descendants of the House of Savoy; and a new provision intended to encourage women's participation in politics. Further amendments are being debated, but for the time being 61.32% of those voting in the 25–26 June 2006 referendum rejected a major Reform Bill approved by both Houses on 17 November 2005 and the attempt to revise Part II appears to have been abandoned or at least postponed indefinitely after almost 25 years. Nonetheless, in 2007, the constitution was amended making
capital punishmentCapital punishment or the death penalty, is the execution of a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences....
illegal in all cases (before this the Constitution prohibited the death penalty except "in the cases provided for by military laws in case of war;" however, no one had been sentenced to death since 1947 and the penalty was abolished from military law in 1994).
See also
- Birth of the Italian Republic
The birth of the Italian Republic is a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy was officially a monarchy ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento...
- Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , commonly referred to as the European Constitution, was an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union...
External links