Political immunities in Italy: between protection measures and privilege

Abstract

The conflicts about the parliamentary immunity provided by article 68.1 of the Constitution are one of the most delicate trials the Constitutional Court has to face, considering that this kind of conflict can be considered an instrument that really represents the relationship between politics and judiciary. From a general point of view, the issue of the legal liability of persons who have important political – constitutional functions (the “the High Offices of the State”) and the one of ensuring ad independent exercise of such functions are really in the middle of the political (and academicals) debates as consequence of the introduction of a case of suspension of trials involving the “High Offices”, its declaration of unconstitutionality, the renewal of a very similar legislative framework and its (new) declaration of unconstitutionality with the decision no. 262 of 19th, October 2009. In this essay the Authors go through the most significant milestones of the constitutional case-law about those issues, a case-law sometimes announced as “big news”, but also often called in question by subsequent decisions, almost never able to stop the “argument” between the judiciary and the Parliament.