REGIONS. - The new Italian Constitution proclaims that the Republic is “one and indivisible,” but “recognizes and promotes local autonomies,” including regional autonomies (art. 115 ff.). The “regional State” therefore occupies an intermediate position between the federal State and a State with merely administrative decentralization, since the regions are recognized as autonomous entities with their own functions.
The regions undoubtedly have constitutional importance because they are provided for, regulated, and guaranteed by the Constitution, and also because they have the possibility of bringing proceedings before the Constitutional Court (art. 134), and because they are endowed with certain partial powers relating to the State’s own constitutional order (such as participation in the election of the President of the Republic, art. 83, in addition to legislative initiative, art. 121).
The regional normative sources are: 1) Statutes. Each region adopts its own statute (approved by the regional council by an absolute majority of its members), which is approved by a law of the Republic; “special” statutes provided for certain regions (Sicily, Sardinia, Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige and, in the future, Friuli-Venezia Giulia) are adopted by “constitutional” laws (they are therefore not expressions of autonomy, but juridically proper acts of the State; that is, statutes “given” to the regions, rather than “established” by them, as are the other statutes mentioned above). 2) Regional laws. Concerning their own organization and the municipal districts included within them, and particularly concerning: urban and rural local police; fairs and markets; public charity and health and hospital assistance; artisan and vocational education and educational assistance; museums and libraries of local authorities; town planning; tourism and the hotel industry; tramways and motor-vehicle lines of regional interest; navigation and lake ports; mineral and thermal waters; quarries and peat bogs; hunting; fishing in inland waters; agriculture and forestry; handicrafts and other matters indicated by constitutional laws. The autonomy of regions with special statutes is broader. 3) Regional decree-laws and legislative decrees (which appear to be implicitly provided for by art. 134, but whose legitimacy is disputed). 4) Regional regulations, analogous to the general regulations of the State; among other things, they may concern the implementation not only of regional laws but also of national laws, where the latter entrust this task to the region through specific provisions.
The regions provided for by the Constitution are 19: Piemonte, Val d’Aosta, Lombardia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzi e Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicilia, Sardegna.
The regions, with their own public domain and patrimony, also possess financial autonomy, determined by laws of the Republic, which “coordinate it with the finances of the State, the provinces, and the municipalities.” They may not, however, impose import, export, or transit duties among themselves; adopt measures that in any way obstruct the free movement of persons and goods; or restrict the right of citizens to exercise their profession, employment, or work in any part of the national territory.
The organs of the region are: 1) the Regional Council, elected according to the system established by State law and enjoying special criminal-law protection (cf. art. 283 of the Penal Code in the new version established by the 1947 law). 2) The Executive Committee, elected by the Council from among its members; it is the executive organ of the region. 3) The President of the Executive Committee, also appointed by the Council, represents the region, promulgates regional laws and regulations, and directs the administrative functions delegated by the State to the regions, in accordance with the instructions of the central government.
Administrative-justice bodies of first instance are also established in the region (by a forthcoming State law), with possible detached sections in places other than the regional capital, replacing the existing Provincial Administrative Committees when acting in a judicial capacity.
The President of the Sicilian region participates in the Council of Ministers, with deliberative vote, in matters concerning the region (the Presidents of Sardinia, Valle d’Aosta, and Trentino-Alto Adige have only a consultative vote).
The broadest autonomy is that of Sicily. The relevant statute (which, from the outset and subsequently in certain respects, has presented delicate issues of constitutional legitimacy) was drafted and approved by the local (provisional) Consulta, subsequently submitted to the National Consulta for examination, enacted by Royal Decree-Law no. 455 of 15 May 1946, and finally became “part of the constitutional laws of the Republic for the purposes and effects of art. 116 of the Constitution” (Constitutional Law no. 2 of 26 February 1948); it applies to Sicily, together with the Aeolian Islands, the Pelagie Islands, Ustica, and Pantelleria. The organs of the Sicilian region are the Assembly (corresponding to the “Council” of the other regions), the President, and the Executive Committee, who are elected by the Assembly and together constitute the government of the region. In addition to broader legislative autonomy, Sicily has special judicial and administrative bodies (the Council of Administrative Justice for the exercise of the consultative and judicial functions belonging to the sections of the Council of State; the Audit Court’s Audit Section and Judicial Section; the High Constitutional Court).
The National Consulta had proposed to the government that the Sicilian Statute be extended to Sardinia, but the Sardinian (provisional) Consulta, invited by the national government to formulate its own draft, discussed and redrafted it in the competent constituent body and adopted it by Constitutional Law no. 3 of 26 February 1948.
Valle d’Aosta had its own administrative system under a legislative decree of 1945; the Statute adopted by Constitutional Law no. 4 of 26 February 1948 draws upon that system and its subsequent amendments, while developing them in certain respects. The territory of the Valley lies outside the customs line and constitutes a free-trade zone. The French language is placed on an equal footing with Italian; official acts may be drawn up in either language, except for measures of the judicial authorities, which are drawn up in Italian. State administrations appoint to service in the Valley officials who originate from the locality or who know the French language. The President of the Executive Committee is responsible for maintaining public order, by delegation or in accordance with the provisions of the government of the Republic, to which he is accountable, through units of the State police and local police. In the regional capital, a coordinating commission is established, composed of a representative of the Ministry of the Interior, who presides over it, a representative of the Ministry of Finance, and another representative of the Valley, to exercise legality review over the administrative acts of local authorities and to promote, where appropriate, reconsideration of those acts. The Administrative Judicial Committee exercises the powers assigned to analogous provincial committees in matters of administrative appeals and tax litigation.
The regulation of the autonomy of Trentino-Alto Adige was formulated with due regard to the De Gasperi-Gruber political agreement (Paris, September 1946), which sought to place, on the basis of mutual satisfaction and without prejudice to Italy’s sovereignty, relations between the Italian and German peoples. The president and vice-president of the Regional Council must be respectively an Italian and a German during the first two-year period, and the reverse during the second; the composition of the Executive must correspond to the composition of the linguistic groups as represented in the Council. Without prejudice to the principle that the official language is Italian, the use of German in public life (also in accordance with art. 6 of the Constitution, which provides for the protection of linguistic minorities) is legally guaranteed; the r. is in turn required to guarantee the teaching of Ladin in the elementary schools of localities where it is spoken.
siciliana. Il diritto pubblico della regione siciliana. For a collection of texts (Sicilian); cf. Piramo Leto, Codice dell'autonomia, Palermo 1949, with a comparative synoptic table of the special statutes. Ferruccio Pergolesi