The new “perimeter” of the “autodichia” of the constitutional bodies.: Recent trends in domestic jurisdiction after the turning point of the judgements of the Constitutional Court no. 120/2014 and no. 262/2017

Abstract

The theme of “autodichia” has been at the centre of the debate of doctrine and case law in recent years, until a new balance was found in the judgement of the Constitutional Court no. 262/2017, which rejected the conflict of powers raised by the Court of Cassation against the provisions of the Parliamentary Regalement (and of the President of the Republic) which established forms of domestic jurisdiction, but, at the same time, provided a series of further elements to “redefine” the boundaries of “autodichia” which, strictly connected to the normative autonomy of the constitutional bodies, could not go beyond the limits assigned to the latter.
This judgement was the basis of a series of decisions, mainly of administrative judges, aimed at denying the admissibility of autodichia for “third parties” with respect to the body.
Furthermore, the aforementioned judgement provided indications for conforming the “autodichia” to a procedural model that respects constitutional principles and providing the occasion for the reform of the domestic “courts” of other constitutional bodies.
Therefore, starting from 2017, the doctrinal and jurisprudential debate around the legitimacy of domestic justice has subsided, while “autodichia” had a “new” stabilization in the constitutional system, oriented according to different and more rigid constraints.