I contenuti ulteriori degli Statuti d'autonomia delle Regioni italiane e delle Comunidades Autonomas

The essay deals with the admissibility and the effectiveness of the so-called “additional or possible contents” of the Statuti and Estatutos (fundamental provisions) regulating, respectively, the Italian Regions and the Spanish Comundades Autónomas. First of all, it points out how the different nature of the two sources, due to the “constitutive” features of the Estatutos with respect to the Statuti of the Italian Regions, has not prevented a similar evolution in the recent period of reforms in both countries. The essay then examines the nature and character of the two sources, analyzing the doctrine and the court decisions in the two systems and comparing the different solutions proposed. Furthermore, it deals critically with the recent decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court regarding the non-regulatory nature of the “additional contents”, explaining their meaning and developping its own reconstruction of the “additional contents” of the Statuti regulating Italian autonomous Regions as residual with respect to the traditional issues and their related topics. As concerns the so-called “diritti statutari” (rights arising from the Statuti), both in Italy and in Spain, the essay finally points out that the interpretation of the admissibility of the contents of such fundamental provisions in this sensitive area lies in the vertical – and not horizontal ¬– character of the same, in that they aim to clarify the relationships between individuals and local authorities rather than the relationships between individuals, thus eliminating or even neutralizing the inevitable inequality rates underlying the strenghtening of autonomism.