Abstract

This paper discusses the role of Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) judicial review of legislation concerning the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the light of the European integration process. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part and the second part move from an internal perspective, while the third part deals with the European level. The first part discusses the criteria that ordinary courts must comply with to involve the ItCC judgment when a law is suspected to violate both the Italian Constitution and the EU Charter. The second part considers some systemic problems that have arisen in the new course of ItCC, particularly the reconstruction of the EU Charter’s norms as interposed norms, i.e. their force and their limits, the infringement of the primacy of EU law and the patriation of the meanings of the Charter. The thesis is that the consideration of the EU Court f Justice case law, a deep reasoning, and the use of preliminary references as a new normality can mitigate these problems. The third part is devoted to the role of the EU Charter in the European system since its promulgation in 2000, with a special focus on the social norms of the Charter. The study recalls the years of hope, when the Charter aimed at constitutionalising the EU, and the years of disillusion, during the economic crisis. The vitality of the Charter is analysed in both the judicial side and the political side, showing a low degree of implementation. The thesis is that the ItCC can contribute to the normativity to the EU Charter through preliminary references, especially on the validity of EU secondary legislation, using arguments and words of a social and democratic constitutionalism.