Abstract

The author distinguishes between the direct and indirect political consequences of Constitutional Court's decisions dealing with conflicts of competence between state powers. The indirect political consequences derive from the instrumental use made by politicians of the Court's decisions. The direct political consequences are instead generated by the legal consequences of the decisions, which affect the genesis or the implementation of Government policies. In this perspective, the decisions of the Court always produce a necessary political effect - because each one of these decisions contributes to define the Form of Government and the Form of State - and a contingent political effect, which depends on the political import of the act subject to the scrutiny of the Court. The analysis is enriched by a survey of the most significant case law on the subject.