Parliamentary Immunities in View of Some Recent Cases: a Corporative Privilege or a Functional Status?
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Abstract
The article about Italian parliamentary immunities wonders if the abuse of this surplus of protection has led to a normalization of an instrumental use, losing the line between political and legal irresponsibility. Some recent constitutional case laws interprete evolutionarily both the contents covered by the unquestionability, as well as the containers of parliamentary statements. Finally, two cases of political reporting highlight how the use of immunity is always functional: on one hand, criticizing the extensive application of immunities to a senator’s family members; on the other hand, by the candidacy of an Italian activist, arrested in Hungary, at the European Parliament. The Constitutional Court assumes a role of decisive regulator in the delicate balancing between interests at stake and bodies involved.
Keywords
- Public Law
- Parliamentary immunities
- Unquestionability
- Irresponsability
- Constitutional Court