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

STRUCTUREThe 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

FOCUSThe Constitution primarily contains general principles; it is not possible to apply them directly-only few articles are considered to be self-executing. The majority require enabling legislation, referred to as accomplishment of constitutionit is difficult to modify the Constitution

HOW

under Article 138two 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 139the 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.

Amendments

The text of the Constitution has been amended 14 times.

The Bill of Rights

The term "bill of rights" originates from Britain, where it referred to a bill that was passed by Parliament in 1689.