Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context

Vittoria Barsotti is Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the PhD Program in Legal Sciences at the University of Florence. She has written books and articles on comparative law, constitutional law, and human rights.Paolo G. Carozza is Professor of Law and Director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He has written books and articles on international human rights law, European and Latin American legal traditions, and comparative constitutional law.Marta Cartabia currently serves as a Justice on the Italian Constitutional Court. She was previously Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Milan-Bicocca. She is a prolific and eminent constitutional law scholar in the field of individual rights and constitutional justice in the Italian, European, and comparative context.Andrea Simoncini is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Florence where he is Director of the International Studies Program in the Legal Science Department. He has written extensively on constitutional law and federal-regional law in the Italian, European, and comparative context.

• Acknowledgments ; Preface ; PART I: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ; CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION ; 1. Constitutional justice prior to 1948 ; 2. American-style constitutional review during the post-war transition ; 3. A complex conception: Designing the Constitutional Court ; 4. A long gestation: The activation of the Court ; 5. The birth of a new system of constitutional adjudication ; 6. Taking a deep breath: The Court's relationship to the body politic ; 7. The "eras" of the Constitutional Court ; 8. The present and future of the Court: constitutional justice in global context ; CHAPTER 2: The Constitutional Court: rules and model ; 1. The system of constitutional justice designed by the Constituent Assembly ; 2. Composition ; 3. Jurisdiction ; 4. The system of judicial review ; 5. Acts that are subject to judicial review ; 6. The Italian model of judicial review: "Cooperative" and "Networked" ; CHAPTER 3: FORMS AND METHODS OF JUDICIAL REASONING ; 1. A concurrent plurality of methods of interpretation ; 2. Reasonabless, proportionality and balancing of values ; 3. The use of transnational law and comparative method ; 4. The decisions of the constitutional court and their effects ; PART II: CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE ; CHAPTER 4: KEY RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS ; 1. The rights and duties of citizens in the Constitution ; 2. The fundamental principles of inviolability and equality ; 3. Personal liberty ; 4. Freedom of religion ; 5. Life, reproduction, health ; 6. Family ; 7. Social rights ; 8. Citizens and migrants ; CHAPTER 5: POWERS AND CONFLICTS ; 1. Relations of powers and the unique role of the Judiciary ; 2. Executive vs. President of the Republic ; 3. Executive vs. Parliament ; 4. Judiciary vs. Parliament ; 5. Judiciary vs. President of the Republic ; CHAPTER 6: REGIONALISM ; 1. Not "federal" but "regional" ; 2. The 2001 constitutional reform of the regional system ; 3. Statutory autonomy ; 4. Legislative autonomy ; 5. Administrative Autonomy: The principle of subsidarity ; 6. Financial Autonomy ; CHAPTER 7: NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION IN THE EUROPEAN SPACE ; 1. The European Clauses of the Italian Constitution ; 2. The Constitutional Court and the European Union ; 3. The Constitutional Court and the European Convention on Human Rights ; Appendix I: The Constitution of the Republic of Italy ; Appendix II: Justices 1955 to present ; Appendix III: Basic Statistics on the Constitutional Court ; Table of Cases ; Index

This is a very different book a combination in the best sense of a law book and a book about the law learned and erudite in its descriptive parts, insightful in its analytical part. It is important because so many out there will simply be unaware of Italian constitutionalism, its history, institutions and not least its jurisprudence. I might say, tongue in cheek, that if you read it coupled with Sabino Cassese's Diary which I recommend below, you will not need to read much more.