This paper briefly refers to the preventive judicial review mechanism of electoral laws, included in the now-failed reform proposal so-called "Renzi-Boschi", as a missed opportunity to "rationalize" the Italian Constitutional Court's interventions on electoral laws. Indeed, recently the Court found itself to stand in for policy-makers' inertia, at the price of a peculiar twist of the ordinary mechanism to access judicial review, as showed by decisions 1/2014 and 35/2017. Such outcome, on the one hand, raises legitimacy issues for the Constitutional judge that are (also) entrusted to compliance with procedural rules established by lawmakers. On the other hand, it provides further confirmation of the odd functioning of the Italian democratic system, which on occasion inspires itself to a principle of "communicating vessels" among functions of policy-making and control instead of the more proper principle of separation, with inevitable consequences even on the running of the rule of law.

Electoral laws, judical review and the principle of "communicating vessels"

CIANCIO, Adriana
2017-01-01

Abstract

This paper briefly refers to the preventive judicial review mechanism of electoral laws, included in the now-failed reform proposal so-called "Renzi-Boschi", as a missed opportunity to "rationalize" the Italian Constitutional Court's interventions on electoral laws. Indeed, recently the Court found itself to stand in for policy-makers' inertia, at the price of a peculiar twist of the ordinary mechanism to access judicial review, as showed by decisions 1/2014 and 35/2017. Such outcome, on the one hand, raises legitimacy issues for the Constitutional judge that are (also) entrusted to compliance with procedural rules established by lawmakers. On the other hand, it provides further confirmation of the odd functioning of the Italian democratic system, which on occasion inspires itself to a principle of "communicating vessels" among functions of policy-making and control instead of the more proper principle of separation, with inevitable consequences even on the running of the rule of law.
2017
judicial review; electoral laws; constitutional justice; rule of law
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Electoral-laws-judicial-review-and-the-principle-of-communicating-vessels.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione Editoriale (PDF)
Dimensione 784.22 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
784.22 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/303091
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact