The Constitution of the Italian Republic The Constitution

The Constitution of the Italian Republic

The Constitution was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947 With 453 votes in favour and 62 against was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947 The Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948 one century after the Statuto Albertino was enacted. Assembly fell into three tendencies solidaristic christian democratic liberal and left-wing (socialist / communist) Each deeply anti-fascist, there was general agreement against an authoritarian form of constitution

STRUCTURE The Constitution is composed of 139 articles (four of which were later abrogated) It arranged into three main parts § Principi Fondamentali, or Fundamental Principles (articles 1– 12) § Part I (articles 13– 54) concerning the Diritti e Doveri dei Cittadini, or Rights and Duties of Citizens § Part II (articles 55– 139) the Ordinamento della Repubblica, or Organisation of the Republic followed by 18 Disposizioni transitorie e finali, or Transitory and Final Provisions.

Articles 13– 28 the Italian equivalent of a bill of rights in common 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

FOCUS The Constitution primarily contains general principles; it is not possible to apply them directlyonly few articles are considered to be self-executing. The majority require enabling legislation, referred to as accomplishment of constitution it is difficult to modify the Constitution HOW under Article 138 two readings are required in each House of Parliament if the second of these are carried with a simple majority (ie. 50%+1) rather than two-thirds, a referendum is needed Under Article 139 the republican form of government cannot be reviewed

Religion 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. The status was modified by a new agreement between church and state in 1984.