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
STRUCTURE
The 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
FOCUS
The Constitution primarily contains general principles; it is not possible
to apply them directlyonly few articles are considered to be self-executing. The majority
require enabling legislation, referred to as accomplishment of
constitution
it is difficult to modify the Constitution
HOW

under Article 138
two 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 139
the 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.