Abstract

To date, when health issues characterized by high scientific or technical complexity have been referred to it, the Italian Constitutional Court has never used its preliminary powers of investigation to request technical-scientific data. The Court leaves to the legislator the task of regulating the scientifically relevant cases and reviews the use of scientific data by the legislator only in the presence of evident unreasonableness. Furthermore, the Court recognizes ample spaces of autonomy to the medical sciences, both in relation to the Court’s own review, and more generally vis-a-vis the discretion of the legislator and the powers of the judiciary.