Sources of law

Difference between:
• Sources on production: rules on the production of law: they indicate
the competent authority to deliberate law and the procedure
• Sorces of cognizance
• Sources producing law or sources of production
The Italian Constitution indicates which sources produce law and the
so-called primary sources, which, in turn, regulate inferior or so-called
secondary sources.
Pyramid: Constitution, primary and secondary sources of law

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 1

Sources of law: acts and facts
• An act is a law if it is adopted during the exercise of power conferred
to a competent body by Constitution, following the rules on
procedure and substance, established by law

• Facts and traditional customs may have legal effect if:

• behaviour remain unchanged over the passage of time
• Perception that certain social behaviour is obligatory and if not
respected, is punishable

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 2

Interpretation: hermeneutical activity
The interpretation looks for the meaning of the law
• on the basis of the single words of the text
• on the basis of the laws governing the policy area
• on the basis of the whole legal system

• judges and administrators (and the legislative itself) must interpret

the law, general and abstract, for the application on a concrete case

• The interpreter’s job is to resolve the contrast between laws

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 3

Analogy
• when a sector is unregulated by law, interpretation allows laws
regulating a similar sector to be extended to it

• Analogy legis: a specific law is applied

• Analogy iuris; principles are applied

• When hermeneutical activity is not sufficient, the Judiciary may resort

to a series of instruments for solving any contrasts through sources of
law
Techniques of resolution of conflicts between laws

• Criterion of Cronology

• Criterion of Hierarchy

• Criterion of Competence

• Criterion of Specialisation
Criterion of Hierarchy
• The law on the lower level in contrast with the law on the higher
level, is declared illegitimate and then annulled.

• If it is a primary law in contrast with the Constitution, it is declared

illegitimate by the Constitutional Court

• if it is a secondary law (regulation) in contrast with a law, it is

declared illegitimate by the Administrative Judge

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 6

Criterion of competence
• Contrast between laws on the same level

• it will prevail the law that is competent in that area (rules of

competence in the Constitution)

• The law that invades the competency of another is declared

illegitimate (by the Constitutional Court, if it is a primary law; by the
Administrative Judge if it is a secondary one)

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 7

Criterion of Cronology

• Criterion of chronology: an old law currently in force that contrasts a

new one approved on a later date is repealed by the new law, and
the old one ceases to have effect for the future

• For facts subject to jurisdiction that emerged before the new law
came into effect, the old law is still applicable

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 8

Criterion of Cronology
The repeal may be:

• expressed (when the new law specifies that old law is repealed)

• tacit (when the new law is incompatible with the old one)

• implicit (when the new law regulates the entire policy area)
Criterion of specialization
• A specif law for specific situations takes precedence over a general
one

• The general law is not invalid, it is valid and effective but it is not
applied in the concrete situations regulated by the specific law

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 10

Constitutional statutory limits

• Italian Constitution imposes primary sources of law in policy areas

• Only a parliamentary decision: this allows the participation of the minority

party in decisions on sensitive matters)

• Two types of statutory limits: absolute and relative

absolute: only the law can regulate a particular policy area

relative: the law establishes the principles and secondary sources may
establish the detailed provisions

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 11

 Types of national sources: the pyramid
• Constitution and other constitutional sources at the summit
• Primary sources: ordinary laws deliberated by the Chambers,
regional laws deliberated by Regional Councils, law decrees,
legislative decrees, referendum (art. 75 Cost.)
• Secondary sources: government, inter-ministerial and
ministerial regulations
• Sources of law with special and guaranteed competence:
standing orders of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate and of
the Constitutional Court

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 12

Constitution: the founding source of Italian law

• It is rigid: can be amended only through a more complicated

procedure and its provisions are guaranteed by the
Constitutional Court, which can annul those primary sources
that infringe constitutional principles or rules
• Long: not only principles and organization of the State, but
also recognizes and protects rights and subjective positions
• Programmatic: it sets goals towards which the activity of
the State must be directed. All its provisions are obligatory

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 13

Constitutional amendment laws: limits
• The purpose of the amendment laws is to modify the Constitution
within the explicit and implicit limits of the Constitution itself

explicit: republican form of the State may not be changed

implicit: legal scholars and constitutional case law have affirmed the
inviolable rights of the man and the supreme principles which cannot
be change without changing Constitution itself

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 14

Constitutional amendment laws: limits
They are subject to the Constitution

While the Constitution is an expression of the «constituent» power

(original power, subject only to political will),
Constitutional Amendment Laws draw their legitimacy from the
Constitution

They may modify the Constitution within the limits the same
Constitution establishes
 Procedure: art. 138 Cost.

Laws amending the Constitution and other constitutional laws shall

be adopted by each House after two successive debates at
intervals of not less than three months, and shall be approved by
an absolute majority of the members of each House on the second
vote. The said laws are submitted to a popular referendum within
three months of their publication, when requested by one fifth of
the members of a House or five hundred thousand electors or five
Regional Councils. The law submitted to a referendum shall not be
promulgated if it is not approved by a majority of valid votes. A
referendum shall not be held if the law has been approved in the
second voting by each of the Houses by a majority of two-thirds of
the members

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 16

Primary sources of law: the force of law
• Just below the Constitution in the hierarchy of legal sources
• They have force of law: they are competent to repeal or
amend previous laws at the same level or previous or
subsequent laws at a subordinate level
• Legislative decrees and law decrees have force of law: they
have the same active and passive capability os ordinary laws
approved by Parliament
• Laws that not respect the principles and provisions of
Constitution are illegitimate and can be annulled by the
Constitutional Court

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 17

 Procedure

• Legislative initiative
• Debate
• Vote
• Promulgation
• Publication in the Official Gazete

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 18

Legislative initiative
• Government
(Government initiative particularly important in the Italian form of parliamentary
executive)
• Each member of the two Chambers
• Organs or bodies on which it is conferred by constitutional law
• Regional Councils
• National Council of Economy and Labour
• Popular initiative: 50.000 voters signing a legislative proposal

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 19

Three procedures to trasform a bill in a law
• Ordinary procedure
• Debating procedure
• Drafting procedure

Art. 72.4 It. Cost.: The ordinary procedure for examination and
approval directly by the House is always followed for bills on
constitutional and electoral matters and for those delegating
legislature, the authorisation and ratification of international accounts
treaties, the approval of budgets and expenditure

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 20

Ordinary procedure
Parliamentary commission or commissions having
competence over the subject matter (composed so
as to reflect the proportion of the parliamentary
groups) examine an discuss the bill, looking for a
compromise between the various political positions.
Then the Commission adopts a base text and
reports it to the Chamber.
The full Chamber discusses the bill and any
amendments, approves it article by article,
concluding with the final vote on each article and
on the final text (a vote of simple majority, the
same political majority of the Government).
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 21
 Debating procedure
• The bill is assigned to the competent Commission to be
examined, discussed and approved
• The bill is voted in the Commission itself (composed so as to
reflect the proportion of the parliamentary groups) not in the
full Chamber
• Art. 72: “Even in such cases, until the moment of its final
approval, the bill may be submitted to the House, if the
Government or one-tenth of the members of the House or one-
fifth of the committee request that it be debated and voted on
by the House itself or that it be submitted to the House for final
approval by means of a call for votes only”

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 22

Drafting procedure
• The full Chamber votes on the Commission’s draft, article by article
and on the text as a whole

• i.e.: the full Chamber approves a bill whose text was drafted in the
parliamentary Commission

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 23

The so-called shuttle mechanism
(perfect bicameralism)

• If the second Chamber amends the text voted by the first Chamber, the
first Chamber must re-approve the amended text
• This passage from one Chamber to another continues until both
branches of Parliament vote an identical text

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 24

 Integration of effectiveness

• A law approved by the two Chambers in the same text

is perfect but it is still not effective
• That law needs the promulgation by the President of
the Republic
• As we know, the President of the Republic may send
back to the Chambres and request a new deliberation,
stating the reasons why he wants it to be re-approve,
with amendments, by the Chambers
• If the Chambers re-approve the bill in the same text,
the President is obliged to promulgate the law
• A law must be published within thirty days after its
promulgation. Fifteen days after its publication, it
enters into effect
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 25
Acts having force of law, issued by the Government:
law decrees and legislative decrees
• These acts are on the same level as ordinary State laws (they
have the same innovative capability and the same resistance)
• These are the only two istances when the Constitution
legitimises the Government to exercise primary legislative
power in the place of Parliament
• For legislative decrees it is the Parliament that decides to
delegate the Government to adopt primary sources of law,
for technical reasons for ex.
• For law decrees it is the exceptional case of necessity and
urgency that legitimises the Government’s intervention
• In both instances Parliament controls the Government’s
primary legislative activity: for a legislative decree the control
is preventive, for a law decree the Government’s power is
controlled afterwards
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 26
Legislative decrees
• Art 76 It. Const.: The exercise of the legislative function may not be delegated to the
Government unless the principles and guiding criteria have been established by the
Houses, and then only for a limited time and for specified ends.
• The law delegating legislative power is a parliamentary law approved by ordinary
procedure
• The law must indicate:
1) principles and guidance criteria
2) subject matter
3)time limit
If it does not do so, it is not valid as law delegating legislative power and the
consequent legislative decree is unconstitutional
The legislative decree is unconconstitutional if it does not respect the delegation act

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 27

 Law decree art. 77

When in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency the

Government adopts provisional measures having the force of law
it must on the same day present them for conversion into law to
the Houses that, even if dissolved, shall be especially summoned
and shall assemble within five days. The decrees lose effect from
their inception if they are not converted into law within sixty
days from their publication. The Houses can however regulate
through laws juridical relations arising out of decrees not
converted.

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 28

 Law decrees: nature and abuse
• Temporary nature of law decree: if it is not converted into law
by the Chambers, any effects produced in the meantime are null
• The conversion law eliminates any Government responsability
• Abuse: the Government has often ignored constitutional limits
and has adopted law decree in cases that perhaps were
exceptional, but not unforeseeble
• Adoption of decrees identical or analogous to expired ones:
re-issuing of law decrees (declared unconstitutional by Const.
Court)

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 29

Acts having force of law, issued by the Government:
law decrees and legislative decrees
• These acts are on an equal level to ordinary laws
• They can repeal or amend preceding laws and cannot be repealed or
amended by secondary sources of law

• These acts are deliberated by the Council of Ministers and issued by

the President of the Republic as a DPR (Decree of the President of the
Republic
• They are published in the Official Gazette with their name (Law
Decree or Legislative Decree)

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano 30

Abrogative referendum
• An instrument of direct democracy that enables the people to
totally or partially repeal an ordinary State law or an act having
force of law
• Procedure
• Art. 75: A popular referendum shall be held to abrogate, totally or
partially, a law or an act having the force of law, when requested by five
hundred thousand electors or five Regional Councils. A referendum is not
permitted in the case of tax, budget, amnesty and pardon laws, or the
authorisation or ratification of international treaties. (…)The proposal
subject to referendum is approved if the majority of those with voting
rights have voted and the proposal as received a majority of validly cast
votes. The procedures for conducting a referendum are established by
law.
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 31
Abrogative referendum and Constitutional Court

• The Constitutional Court must verify its admissibility

• Over the years constitutional case law has amplified this list
by giving a new interpretation to subject matters excluded
and including additional subject matters deriving from the
fundamental principles or the nature of a referendum itself
• The referendum is considered valid if there is a structural
quorum: the majority of citizens with voting rights must vote
for the referendum
• The law is repealed when there are more votes in favour of
abrogation than against

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 32

abrogative referendum effects
• The law is repealed the day after the publication in the Official
Gazette of the Decree of the President of the Republic declaring that
the law is repealed
• The President of the Republic may postpone it for sixty days to give
Parliament the chance to fill in any legislative gaps
• Following a negative outcome, an identical referendum petition may
not be presented for the next five years
• The Central Office may decide to interrupt the referendum if, in the
meantime, Parliament repeals or amends the law subject to
referendum (but only if essential principles and contents of the law
really change)
Parliamentary standing orders

• They must be approved or amended by the absolute majority

of its members (because the opposition parties in Parliament
must also partecipate in the decision)
• They regulate both the internal organization of each Chamber
and integrate the procedure established by Constitution
• They are not subject to external control because they express
the autonomy and independence of each Chamber

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 34

 Secondary source of law

• Immediately subordinate to ordinary law and to other primary

sources
• Government regulations and regulatory power to Municipalities,
Provinces and Metropolitan Cities
• Government regulations are disciplined by an ordinary law: n.
400/1988
• procedure: deliberated by the Council of Minister after the
submission to the opinion (obligatory but not binding) of the
Council of State; registered by the Court of Accounts (financial
control) and finally issued by the President of the Republic
(Presidential Decree) and published in the Official Gazete

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 35

Types
• Executive regulations
• integrative regulations
• organizational regulations
• independent regulations
• Delegated regulations: an ordinary law, determining principles,
authorizes the Government to exercise its regulatory power in a field
until then regulated by law

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano 36

Regulations by individual Ministers and inter-
ministerial ones

• The law may provide them

• Subordinated to the government regulations
• Communicated to the President of Council
• Procedure and form: ministerial decree previous opinion of the
Council of State and registration by the Court of Account

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano 37

Regional and local autonomy
• Art. 5, Principle of autonomy: The Republic, one and indivisible, recognizes and
promotes local autonomies; implements in those services that depend on the State the fullest
measure of administrative decentralisation; and accords the principles and methods of its
legislation to the requirements of autonomy and decentralisation.
• Five Regions with special autonomy and special Statutes (adopted
by constitutional law) (art. 116)
• Differentiated regionalism: ordinary regions may negotiate additional forms of
autonomy and a State law must approve that with an absolute majority of their members on
the basis of an agreement between State and Region (art. 116.3)

• Autonomy of Municipalities and Provinces is guaranteed by the

Constitution

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 38

Statutes of ordinary Regions

Art.123 Const: “Each Region shall have a Statute that, in harmony with the
Constitution, shall lay down the form of government and basic principles for the
organisation of the Region and the conduct of its business. The statute shall regulate
the right of initiative and referendum on the laws and administrative measures of the
Region as well as the publication of laws and regional regulations”.

- The Statute is supra-ordinate to an ordinary law (hierarchy)

- It has competential limits laid down by the Constitution (competence)

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 39

 Statutes: procedure
• Regional Statutes are adopted and amended by the Regional Council
through legislation approved by an absolute majority of its members,
with two subsequent deliberations at an interval of not less than two
months. The Government of the Republic may challenge the
constitutional validity of the Regional Statutes before the Constitutional
Court within thirty days of their publication. The Statute is submitted to
popular referendum if one-fiftieth of the electors of the Region or one-
fifth of the members of the Regional Council so request within three
months of its publication. The Statute that is submitted to referendum is
not promulgated if it is not approved by the majority of valid votes. In
each Region, the Statutes govern the Council of Local Authorities, which is
a consultative body on relations between the Regions and local entities

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 40

 Legislative regional power

• Both State law and regional laws must respect limits set up by
the Constitution, European Union law and international
obligations
• Regional law is a primary source of law, subordinate to the
Constitution and on the same level as ordinary State law (and
acts having force of law)
• Relationship between State law and Regional law is based on the
principle of competence

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 41

State and Regional legislative competencies are
specified by the Constitution (art. 117)

1) Exclusive competence of the State (subject-matters indicated

with a clause list)
2) Concurrent legislative competency (a State framework law
containing the principles that discipline the subject matter and a
detailed regional law on that subject matter)
3) Residual subject matters to the Regional legislative competence

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 42

Regional Regulatory Power
• Each statute designates the holder of regional regulatory power
(Regional Council or Regional Cabinet)
• The exercise of regulatory power is differentiated from Region to
Region
• Regions can exercise regulatory power on residual and concurrent
subject matter and also on matters exclusively reserved to the State,
if there is a delegation
• Regulations are not subject to government control
 European sources of law

• Original law (primary sources of law): Treaties of the European

Community. Their supremacy is guaranteed by the interpretation by
the European Court of Justice (ECJ)
Treaty on the European coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (Paris, 1951)
Treaty on European Economic Community (EEC) (Rome, 1957)
Single European Act (1986)
Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
Treaty of Nice (2000)
Treaty of Lisbon (2007)

• Derived law (secondary sources of law)

Sources of community law adopted by community bodies, on the
basis of the procedure established by the Treaties
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 44
 Treaty of Lisbon (2007; in force: 2009)

1. A sole legal entity: EU

2. The role of the Parliament (increased)
3. Decreased the subject matters which require the unanimity if the
Member States for a decision
4. Court of Justice (ECJ)
5. Charter of fundamental rights of EU (proclaimed in Nice in 2000) at
the same legal level of the Treaties

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano 45

 Principle of attribution

• The Treaties expressly assigns sectors to be regulated by the

EU legislation
• There are also subject matters assigned to the concurrent
competence of both the EU and Member States
• ECJ has extended both the policy areas of EC and the
effectiveness of the Treaties
• Doctrine of implicit powers

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 46

Principle of subsidiarity

• In Maastricht principle of subsidiarity: in sectors where the

Community does not have exclusive competence, it may intervene
only when action of a Member State is insufficient to achieve the
objective of a law which can be better reached through the
Community’s intervention

• The dynamic application of the principle often tends to increase the

EU competences

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 47

Types of EU sources of law
Non binding acts:
Recommendations (invitation addressed to Member States to conform
to certain behaviour)
Opinions: express the position of a European body

Binding acts:
Regulations
Directives
Decisions

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 48

 European Sources of law: Regulations

• They establish general and abstract rules, which are obligatory and
binding for all EU citizens
• They are directly applicable within each legal system
• They must not be implemented by national law to become effective,
but they are immediatly binding
• The ECJ has declared domestic laws that reproduce the content of
the regulations to be illegitimate

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 49

European Sources of law:
Directives and self-executing directives
• They are binding as to the result to be achieved, but leave their implementation
to the discretion of each Member State
• They are binding as to the deadlines (and contents)
• Each Member State choose the most suitable legislative instruments for attaining
the result the EU desires within a certain time limit
• Directives are generally drafted as a framework for more specific domestic
legislation
• But sometimes they are self-executing directives, because they are very detailed,
clear and precise: they can be applied directly if they are not implemented at
national level. And they introduce obligations for Member States

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 50

Decisions
• They are addressed to specific Member States or legal persons
• They are not general and abstract
• They are binding

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 51

Soft law
• Atypical acts of non-binding nature, in those sectors in which
the Community lacks the necessary competence to legislate
a binding law
• Preparatory acts that precede the adoption of legislative
acts: it is a way of obtaining a wide consensus for policies
that are adopted
• Commission’s instrument of communication: green papers
(document of a cognitive nature); white papers (documents
in which the Commission illustrates the intervention it
proposes); plans of action
European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 52
 Italian Constitution and Community Law
• Art. 11: “Italy shall agree, on conditions of equality with other states, to the
limitations of sovereignty necessary to create an order that ensures peace and
justice among Nations; it promotes and encourages international organisations having
such ends in view”
• For that, when Italy joined the EU, it did not have to amend the Constitution
• The limitation of sovereignty was provided for by the founding treaties, executed with
a State law
• The amendments to Title V provide specific references to EU obligations to which
both State and Regional legislation must adhere

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 53

Evolution of relationship between Italian legal framework
and Community one
• Initially the Constitutional Court (C.C.) held that Community legal norms were a
simple demostration of international cooperation and put the laws containing the
implementation of Community Treaties on the same level as that of any primary
source of Italian law (risk of repealing by a simple law)
• In 1973, the C.C. said that the two systems are autonomous and separate,
although coordinated
• The C.C. recognised therefore the direct effectiveness of Community rules in the
Community’s legal system, but it reserved to itself the power to judge compliance
of Community norms with the Italian Constitution, in order to protect the
fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution
• In 1984 the C.C. recognised the immediate effectiveness of Community law in
internal national legal system, also including case law, except controlimiti

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 54

 Controlimiti doctrine

• Even if community law takes precedence over Italian law, according to art. 11 It.
Const., by which “Italy shall agree, on conditions of equality with other states, to the
limitations of sovereignty necessary to create an order that ensures peace and justice
among Nations”, there is a limit (to the limitations):

• EU law must not be in contrast with supreme principles of italian legal system and
the inviolable rights of human being
• Constitutional Court grants Community law primacy over italian constitutional law,
unless EU law would be in conflict with these «controlimiti»
• In that case, Constitutional Court could declare as inapplicable a piece of EU
legislation. Until now it has never happened

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 55

 Directives’ implementation

• Directives require the intervention of State law, because they

are not directly applicable, except in the cases they are self
executive

• In the past European Commission often imposed sanctions on

Italy, because Italy didn’t fulfill all its obligations and didn’t
implement directives

• The answer to this problem was the so-called Annual

Community Law, by which all the directives, every year, are
implemented

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 56

L. No. 234/2012 provides two instruments:
1)The Annual Community Law
2)The Annual Community Delegation Law

1) It can directly implement directives (by amending or repealing

Italian laws)

2) It can delegate the Government to adopt legislative decrees to

implement EU provisions
- It may authorize the Government to adopt secondary sources
(regulations) to implement directives
- It may approve a framework law containing a series of guiding
principles which the Regions must follow to implement directives
themselves, by Regional laws

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 57

How to resolve contrasts between directives and
Italian primary sources of law?
• Italian primary sources in contrast with directives
are also in contrast with the Constitution (art. 11
and 117)

• These sources (State laws or Regional laws) shall

be declared uncostitutional by Italian
Constitutional Court, because they are
illegitimate and must be annulled

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 58

The implementation of EU regulations and self-
executing directives
• Regulations are self-executing and directly binding: they do not require a
national law to implement them
• When there is a contrast between European regulations and Italian
primary sources of law, european law pravails over the laws of the
Member States
• Each judge who interprets the law, must apply the European regulation
and not apply the internal law in contrast
• The effectiveness of Community Law depends on a decision of an Italian
judge

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 59

Italian Constitutional Court and EU law implementation

• The case law of the Italian Constitutional Court finally came to a dualist
approach stating that EU and Italy have two distinct and autonomous
legal orders with own system of legal sources
• It accepted that community law takes precedence over Italian law
• ECJ is the competent judge to interpret EU law
• Preliminary ruling: if an italian judge or the Constitutional Court itself
have a doubt about the interpretation of EU law, they may refer the
question to the ECJ, to obtain the authentic interpretation of EU law

European and Italian Public Law Giovanna Razzano Pagina 60