Sul valore della Convenzione europea nell'ordinamento italiano

In the present article the author examines, at first, the question whether the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights are immediately applicable in Italian law. According to the author, at least the provisions which are “self-executing” have such quality; therefore it is possible to invoke them before a national judge and, on the other side, they can repeal previous national law. As to the position of the European Convention in the hierarchy of the Italian sources of law, the two judgments rendered on 24 October 2007 by the Italian Constitutional Court are deeply analysed. These judgments underline that Article 117, paragraph 1, of the Constitution declares that legislative power must be exercised in the observance of international obligations. As a consequence, an Italian act incompatible with a provision of the European Convention of Human Rights would be contrary to Article 117, paragraph 1, and the Constitutional Court should declare it as unconstitutional and repeal it. On the contrary, no provision of the European Convention of Human Rights could derogate from the Italian Constitution. In the last part of this article it is underlined the importance of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights as a guideline for the national judge in the interpretation and application of the European Convention. Moreover the article examines the problems arising from the execution of the judgments of the European Court, particularly when a European judgment is contrary to a previous judgment rendered by an Italian judge.