Constitutional Court of Italy

The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic (Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana) is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name Consulta is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome.

History
The court is a post-World War II innovation, established by the republican Constitution of Italy in 1948, but it became operative only in 1955 after the enactment of the Constitutional Law n. 1 of 1953 and the Law n. 87 of 1953. It held its first hearing in 1956.

Powers
According to Article 134 of the Italian Constitution, the Court shall pass judgement on:
 * controversies on the constitutional legitimacy of laws issued by the State and Regions and when the Court declares a law unconstitutional, the law ceases to have effect the day after the publication of the ruling;
 * conflicts arising from allocation of powers of the State and those powers allocated to State and Regions, and between Regions;
 * charges brought against the President.

Additionally, a handful of constitutional laws were promulgated to regulate the powers and functionality of the Court during the years. The most important being constitutional law n. 1/1953, which, among other things, extends the power of reviewing and approving referendum's requests to the Court. (Art. 2)

The constitutional Court passes on the constitutionality of laws with no right of appeal.

Since 12 October 2007, when reform of the Italian intelligence agencies approved in August 2007 came into force, the pretext of state secret cannot be used to deny access to documents by the Court.

Composition
The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 judges for the term of service of nine years: 5 appointed by the President, 5 elected by the Parliament of Italy and 5 elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts. Of those elected by the supreme courts, 3 are elected by the Supreme Court of Cassation (penal and civil justice), one is elected by the Court of Auditors, and one by the Council of State (supreme administrative court). Candidates need to be either lawyers with twenty years or more experience, full professors of law, or (even former) judges of the Supreme Administrative, Civil and Criminal tribunals. The members then elect the President of the Court. The President is elected from among its members in a secret ballot, by an absolute majority (8 votes in the case of a full court). If no person gets a majority, a runoff election between the two judges with the most votes occurs. The President of the Court appoints one or more vice-presidents to stand in for him in the event of his absence for any reason.

Current membership

 * Appointed by: