Constitutional courts and Economic Crisis

Abstract

It analyses three case studies: 1) sovereignty conflicts in Europe; 2) conflicts concerning the national anti-crisis legislation’s compliance with the Treaty of Nice; 3) internal conflicts over the constitutionality of the national anticrisis legislation. It is argued that the constitutional jurisprudence, in hard cases, meets a “double fidelity” question: to choose between the salus rei publicae involved in the austerity measures adopted by the government (and eventually compressing the fundamental rights and the regional and local autonomy) and the protection of the constitutional principles and fundamental rights (thus conversely sacrificing the salus rei publicae).