Constitutional Court of Italy

The Constitutional Court of Italy is the court that the Italian Constitution of 1947 sets up to decide constitutional questions in the Italian Republic. Article 134 gives it jurisdiction over disputes about whether laws and acts having the force of law, issued by the State or by the Regions, are consistent with the Constitution, over conflicts about the division of powers between the State and the Regions and between Regions, and over charges brought against the President of the Republic and the Ministers. Under article 135 it has fifteen judges, one third nominated by the President of the Republic, one third by Parliament in joint sitting and one third by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts. Judges are chosen from among judges, university professors of law and lawyers with at least twenty years of practice, serve a single nine-year term, and elect a President of the Court who serves three years. When the Court declares a law unconstitutional, that law ceases to have effect the day after the decision is published, and article 137 states that no appeal is allowed against the Court's decisions.