The Republic of Italy

Abstract

This chapter looks at Italian judicial review and the Italian Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The Italian Bill of Rights and Italian judicial review emerged primarily as the result of a rights from wrongs process. This is shown by the Italian Constitutional Court’s first case in which it overturned an Italian Fascist-era law forbidding the distribution of political pamphlets. Moreover, judicial review has thrived in Italy because, unlike Japan, the Italian Constitution sets up a variety of different competing power centers among which the Constitutional Court can navigate to get its way. Meanwhile, the complex Italian political party systems in the last sixty years may have allowed the Italian Constitutional Court more freedom to navigate the Italian political process for the same reason that radical proportional representation in Israel helped Aharon Barak in cementing in place Israeli constitutionalism. Finally, Italy’s multiparty system may have caused alliances on the left and on the right to constitutionalize rights for “insurance and commitment” reasons.