The Constitution of Italy: axiological continuity between domestic and international level

The Italian Constitution (1948) belongs to the group of constitutions described as ‘constitutions born from the Resistance’, forged to reject totalitarian experiences. According to the report, the concept of the ‘Stato di diritto’ is similar to the Rechtsstaat, with two key dimensions: (a) constitutional provisions on access to courts and judicial review; and (b) the legality principle, which subordinates administrative acts to parliamentary statutes. Under the latter, the introduction of criminal offences and imposition of obligations and taxation is permissible only on the basis of a parliamentary statute. The need to protect these tenets in the context of implementing the European Arrest Warrant system gave ground to extensive concerns on the part of governmental committees and legal scholars, leading to the introduction of fundamental rights safeguards, which, however, were criticised by the European Commission. Other areas where constitutional values have come under strain include the protection of social rights and the powers of the regions. More broadly, the report explores how to ensure axiological continuity between the principles and values that govern the life of a given polity within its boundaries and those that should characterise the international community. The report also observes that the autonomous language of transnational ‘constitutionalism’ does not readily correspond to what constitutional lawyers mean by the same word. In Italian scholarship, a number of scholars have come to speak about ‘weak’ or ‘post-modern’ constitutionalism, typical of the era of globalisation. Constitutional amendments regarding the EU are limited; further amendments have been considered, including a reference to ‘supreme principles of the Italian legal order and of the inviolable human rights’.