Italy. The state of liberal democracy

Since the beginning of its functioning, the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) has put significant effort into combining its role as guardian of the Constitution with effective relations with other constitutional actors. The ICC’s relation-building capacity was not limited to the domestic – horizontal – level but also to the supranational – vertical – one, as specifically reported in last year’s report. As for 2017, the most characterizing dimension of this relationality has been the “horizontal” relationality with political bodies. In fact, the ICC was called to decide on many issues that required it to simultaneously assert its own constitutional duties by fine-tuning its own mission and to keep a collaborative relationship with political actors. The balance between these two goals characterizes the stance the ICC has taken both in the delicate and crucial matter of constitutional scrutiny of electoral legislation (Part II) and in other significant matters (Part III).