Constitutional Court of Italy

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Constitutional Court of Italy (Italian: Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana ) is a supreme court of Italy, the other being the Court of Cassation. Sometimes, the name Consulta is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome.

Powers

According to Article 134[1] of the Constitution, the Court shall pass judgement on

  • controversies on the constitutional legitimacy of laws issued by the State and Regions, under the conditions established by the Constitutional Law, and when the Court declares a law unconstitutional, the law ceases to have effect the day after the publication of the ruling;
  • conflicts arising from allocation of powers of the State and those powers allocated to State and Regions, and between Regions;

Composition

The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 judges for the term of service of nine years: 5 appointed by the President, 5 elected by the Parliament of Italy[2] and 5 elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts. Candidates need to be either lawyers with twenty years or more experience, full professors of law, or (former) judges of the Supreme Administrative, Civil and Criminal tribunals.[3] The members then elect the President of the Court, since 12 November 2014 this has been Alessandro Criscuolo. The President is elected from among its members in a secret ballot, by an absolute majority (8 votes in the case of a full court). If no person gets that many votes, a runoff election between the two judges with the most votes occurs. One or two vice-presidents, appointed by the President of the Court, stand in for the president in the event of his absence for any reason. The constitutional court passes on the constitutionality of laws with no right of appeal.

The court is a post-World War II innovation. Since 12 October 2007, when reform of the Italian intelligence agencies approved in August 2007 came into force, the pretext of state secret cannot be used to deny access to documents by the Court.

Membership

As of 21 December 2015, all fifteen positions are occupied. The composition of the Court is as follows:[4]

Name Elected by Date elected Date sworn in Type of membership
Alessandro Criscuolo Courts (Court of Cassation) 28 October 2008 11 November 2008 President (since 12 November 2014)
Giuseppe Frigo Parliament 21 October 2008 23 October 2008 Judge
Paolo Grossi President 7 February 2009 23 February 2009 Judge
Giorgio Lattanzi Courts (Court of Cassation) 19 November 2010 9 December 2010 Vice President (since 12 November 2014)
Aldo Carosi Courts (Court of Auditors) 17 July 2011 13 September 2011 Judge
Marta Cartabia President 2 September 2011 13 September 2011 Vice President (since 12 November 2014)
Mario Rosario Morelli Courts (Court of Cassation) 18 November 2011 12 December 2011 Judge
Giancarlo Coraggio Courts (Council of State) 19 November 2012 28 January 2013 Judge
Giuliano Amato President 12 September 2013 18 September 2013 Judge
Silvana Sciarra Parliament 6 November 2014 11 November 2014 Judge
Daria de Pretis President 18 October 2014 11 November 2014 Judge
Nicolò Zanon President 18 October 2014 11 November 2014 Judge
Franco Modugno Parliament 16 December 2015 21 December 2015 Judge
Augusto Antonio Barbera Parliament 16 December 2015 21 December 2015 Judge
Giulio Prosperetti Parliament 16 December 2015 21 December 2015 Judge

See also

References

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  2. Parliament appoints judges with increasing delay: see (Italian)Giuseppe Salvaggiulo, Consulta, sfregio infinito. Ventisei votazioni fallite, in La Stampa, 3 October 2015 and (Italian)Giampiero Buonomo, Negoziazione politica e Parlamento...Non solo risate, in Avanti online, 26 August 2015.
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External links

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