The Dialogue between the Italian Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union

The paper aims at scrutinizing the recent judicial dialogue between the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It starts from the historical background which influenced other national Supreme Courts jurisprudence and helped giving the CJEU’s case law a human rights-oriented approach. The balance between the powers and the roles of the two Courts seemed to be well defined in the mid-80ies. After a quiet period, in a recent set of cases the ICC seems to have adopted a new approach towards international instances, turning to the strong promotion of national constitutional values. However, this led to a direct clash with the International Court of Justice and a potential conflict with the European Court of Human Rights, but also to a new dialogue between the ICC and the CJEU. The main part of the paper discusses this new approach, with particular regard to the relationships with the EU, and tries to reconcile some contradictions in the related ICC’s case law.