Constitution

Italy 1947 Constitution (reviewed 2020)

TRANSITIONAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS

  1. With the implementation of the Constitution the provisional Head of the State shall exercise the functions of President of the Republic and assume that title.
  2. If, at the date of the election of the President of the Republic, all the Regional Councils have not been set up, only members of the two Houses shall participate in the election.
  3. For the first composition of the Senate of the Republic, Deputies to the Constituent Assembly who possess all the requisites by law to be Senators and who:

    Those also shall be appointed Senators, by decree of the President of the Republic, who had been members of the dissolved Senate and who had been members of the Consulta Nazionale.

    The right to be appointed Senator may be renounced before signing of the decree of appointment. Acceptance of candidacy in political elections shall constitute renunciation of the right to be appointed Senator.

  4. For the first election of the Senate Molise shall be considered a Region in itself, having the due number of Senators on the basis of its population.
  5. The provisions of Article 80 of the Constitution on the question of international treaties which involve budget expenditures or changes in the law, shall become effective as from the date of convocation of Parliament.
  6. Within five years after the Constitution has come into effect the special jurisdictional bodies still in existence shall be revised, excluding the jurisdiction of the Council of State, the Court of Accounts, and the military tribunals.Within a year of the same date, a law shall provide for the re-organisation of the Supreme Military Tribunal according to Article I 11.
  7. Until such time as the new law on the Judiciary in accordance with the Constitution has been issued, the provisions in force shall continue to be observed. Until such time as the Constitutional Court begins its functions, the decision on controversies indicated in Article 134 shall be conducted in the forms and within the limits of the provisions already in existence before the implementation of the Constitution.
  8. Elections of the Regional Councils and the elected bodies of provincial administration shall be called within one year of the implementation of the Constitution.The laws of the Republic shall regulate for every branch of public administration the passage of the state functions attributed to the Regions. Until such time as the re-organisation and re-distribution of the administrative functions among the local bodies has been accomplished, the Provinces and the Municipalities shall retain those functions they presently exercise and those others which the Regions may delegate to them.

    Laws of the Republic shall regulate the transfer to the Regions of officials and employees of the State, including those from central administrations, which shall be made necessary by the new provisions. In setting up their offices the Regions shall, except in cases of necessity, draw their personnel from among the employees of State local bodies.

  9. The Republic, within three years of the implementation of the Constitution, shall adjust its laws to the needs of local autonomies and the legislative jurisdiction attributed to the Regions.
  10. The general provisions of Title V of the Second Part of this Constitution shall temporarily apply to the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as per Article 116, without prejudice to the protection of linguistic minorities in accordance with Article 6.
  11. Up to five years after the implementation of the Constitution other Regions may be established by constitutional laws, thus amending the list in Article131, and without the conditions required under the first paragraph of Article132, without prejudice, however, to the obligation to consult the peoples concerned.
  12. It shall be forbidden to reorganise, under any form whatsoever, the dissolved Fascist party.Notwithstanding Article 48, the law has established, for not more than five years from the implementation of the Constitution, temporary limitations to the right to vote and eligibility for the leaders responsible for the Fascist regime.
  13. The members and descendants of the House of Savoy shall not be voters and may not hold public office or elected offices.Access and sojourn in the national territory shall be forbidden to the ex-kings of the House of Savoy, their spouses and their male descendants.

    The assets, existing on national territory, of the former kings of the House of Savoy, their spouses and their male descendants shall be transferred to the State. Transfers and the establishment of royal rights on said properties which took place after 2 June 1946, shall be null and void. (*)

    (*)Constitutional law no. I of 23 October 2002 has established that the first and second paragraphs of the 13th transitional and final provision of the Constitution cease to be applicable as of the date of the entry into force of said Constitutional law (10 November 2002).

  14. Titles of nobility shall not be recognised.The place-names included in those existing before 28 October 1922 shall serve as part of the name.

    The Order of Saint Mauritius shall be preserved as a hospital corporation and shall function in the ways established by law.

    The law shall regulate the suppression of the Heraldic Council.

  15. With the entry into force of the Constitution, the legislative decree of the Lieutenant of the Realm No. 151 of 25 June 1944 on the provisional organisation of the State shall become law.
  16. Within one year of the entry into force of the Constitution, the revision and co-ordination therewith of previous constitutional laws which had not at that moment been explicitly or implicitly abrogated shall begin.
  17. The Constituent Assembly shall be called by its President to decide, before31 January 1948, on the law for the election of the Senate of the Republic, special regional statues and the law governing the press.Until the day of the election of the new Parliament, the Constituent Assembly may be convened, when it is necessary to decide on matters attributed to its jurisdiction by Article 2, paragraphs one and two, and Article 3, paragraphs one and two, of legislative decree No. 98 of 16March 1946.

    At that time the Standing Committees shall maintain their functions. Legislative Committees shall send back to the Government those bills, submitted to them, with their observations and proposals for amendments.

    Deputies may present questions to the Government with request for written answers.

    In accordance with the second paragraph of this Article, the Constituent Assembly shall be called by its President following reasoned request of the Government or at least two hundred Deputies.

  18. This Constitution shall be promulgated by the provisional Head of State within five days of its approval by the Constituent Assembly and shall come into force on 1 January 1948.The text of the Constitution shall be deposited in the Town Hall of every Municipality of the Republic and there made public, for the whole of 1948, so as to allow every citizen to know of it.

    The Constitution, bearing the seal of the State, shall be included in the Official Records of the laws and decrees of the Republic.

    The Constitution must be faithfully observed as the fundamental law of the Republic by all citizens and bodies of the State.