Abstract

None of the professors of the University of Bologna took an active part in the drafting of the Italian Constitution, and only one of them (a geologist) was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946. Still, it would be naïve to think that they were not involved in the least in the long transition that resulted in the 1948 Constitution. Three sources have been scrutinized in order to piece together how far professors participated in the great public debate around the constitutional referendum and the new Constitution: records of the governing bodies of the Faculties and the University; local press; publications by the staff of the Faculty of Law, hypothetically the Faculty most interested in the drafting of a Constitution. As a matter of fact, just a few professors took active part in the discussion on the future fundamental laws of Italy: mostly those who had previously taken a tough stance against Fascism. Moreover, their attitude was usually inspired more by politics than by legal science. Jurists in particular appear reluctant to take sides: possibly because they were afraid of being out of tune with public opinion and the choices of the Constituent Assembly.