Thesis title: Dialogo tra le Corti e ri-accentramento tra sovranità statale e federalismo europeo
The research conducted aims to examine the link between the institution of state sovereignty and a specific form of European federalism, starting from the theme of dialogue between courts, specifically understood as a comparison between the case law of the Italian Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union on the relationship between the two legal systems, the domestic and the EU, in the event of conflicts between them.
The starting point was an analysis of the approach taken in Judgment No. 269/2017, which inaugurated a refocusing on certain issues of compatibility with EU law, departing from the dictates of Judgment No. 170/1984, and culminating in the adjustments to this line of case law with the recent judgment no. 181/2024, which established the so-called constitutional tone, confirming the centralising intent of our court of law, albeit in a mitigated form.
The combination of this re-centralisation with the Constitutional Court's tendency to directly refer preliminary rulings to the Court of Justice has led, first of all, to the conclusion that the Constitutional Court does not intend to remain excluded from the circuit of fundamental rights protection. Furthermore, it has led to the recent guidelines being seen as an expression of the sovereignty of a Member State of the European Union.
This led to an examination of the historical and legal evolution of the concept of sovereignty, from the studies of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes to the realisation that, after the Second World War, with the emergence of supranational legal systems, this concept has now been scaled back in its essential features, while remaining a typical prerogative of the states themselves.
This led to reflection on the prospects for the evolution of European integration, in order to examine the possibility of using constitutional law institutions to bring about the creation of a federal state in Europe that would incorporate the legal systems of the current member states of the European Union.
The research has led to the rejection of the possibility of proceeding through the use of international treaties, not only for specific legal reasons but also because of concrete historical failures, in order to envisage the holding of elections for a European Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a genuine constitutional charter for a new federal state.
The essential elements of the European federal constitution were outlined, without neglecting the need to take into account the constitutions of the individual states, which, once the federal path has been embarked upon, will have to be adapted to the new institutional structure.
It was concluded that, for the purposes of forming the new state, the principle of effectiveness cannot be ignored, given that no sovereign constitution can legitimise procedures aimed at permanently ceding its sovereignty without damaging itself. This does not prevent us from identifying strategies, which are suggestive in terms of legal reflection, aimed at least at facilitating the de facto implementation of this process, by focusing on the institutions of the Italian Constitution.