Abstract

By the judgment 240/2020, the Italian Constitutional Court adjudicates a constitutional conflict between the Italian State and the Lazio Region on landscape planning powers, ruling in favour of the central institutions. The decision confirms the precedent case-law which has endorsed and strengthened the National Government power on landscape planning at the expense of Regional and Local Authorities by referring to the principle of loyal cooperation. Strictly speaking, such a principle should enshrine a «neuter» criterion to temper different positions and to balance the national interests with the local ones. Nonetheless, in the constitutional case-law the principle has mostly been used to benefit the State: in the policies of landscape planning it actually allows the State to interfer in the regional proceedings and to define the outcomes. The article examines the judgment n. 240 that confirms this approach and extends the application of loyal cooperation to every aspect of the landscape administration.