Abstract

The article analyzes the spontaneous emergence of the practice of ad interim exercise of cabinet functions. It examines how this practice already existed in the legal order of the Kingdom of Sardenia (July 1831), emerged under the «Statuto Albertino» of 1848 and consolidated during the Italian Republic. Over the decades, the practice has experienced various forms and a multiplicity of changes (interim for a vacancy of the officer; interim to replace the officer in charge when he was outside the capital city; interim of a ministry or of an undersecretary). As a matter of fact all the different forms of interim emerged as practical necessities rather than as application of express normative provisions. The practice of interim exercise of cabinet function, hence shares the same development of the decree-laws and delegate executive regulations.