Abstract

The essay analyzes art. 13 of the Draft Constitutional Reform Bill (n.1429-B) currently being discussed in the Italian parliament - entitled «Provisions for the reform of perfect bicameralism, reduction of the number of parliamentarians, reduction of the costs for the functioning of the institutions, abolition of CNEL and review of Chapter V of Part II of the Italian Constitution. » Art. 13, in particular, modifies articles 3 and 134 of the Constitution by introducing a form of preventative constitutional review. This preventative review is limited to electoral laws for the two chambers (Camera and Senato) and is triggered by the request of a parliamentary minority. This form of review would be completely new to the Italian constitutional system. In its first part, the paper offers a general cost benefit analysis of the new provision. In its second part, it attempts an evaluation of its impact with regard to: the level of protection of electoral rights, the objective protection of constitutional legality, possible interferences with other constitutional bodies and the coherence of the Italian system of constitutional review.