The Constitution’s “Workshop of ideas”

Published

2026-01-13

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63277/gsc.v36i.4557

Authors

  • Sabino Cassese Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Keywords:

Constitutional History, Constitutional Culture, Rights and Duties, Equality, State and Society

Abstract

What is behind the Republican Constitution? The members of the Constituent Assembly were not entirely aware of what they were creating. The heterogeneous character of the Constitutional Charter and the oscillation of judgments on the subject imply the necessity of a research on the history of the culture of the Constitution. Should we believe that the Constitution was the result of contingent events, of the “Resistenza” to fascism, substantially a reaction to the previous regime? or alternatively was it the result of a legacy, even fascist, statalism? More generally, what were the strands of ideas that contributed to the formulation of constitutional precepts? The text indicates some “paths” on which work to answer these questions.

Author Biography

Sabino Cassese, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Professore emerito della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa e giudice emerito della Corte Costituzionale.