Abstract

This chapter deals with the difficult process of constitutionalisationConstitutionalisation which characterised Italian UnificationItalian national unification. ConstitutionalisationConstitutionalisation is a long-term phenomenon which had the purpose of giving constitutional forms to the NationNation. The promulgation of the Albertine Statute is more the start than the arrival of this phenomenon. The focus of this investigation is, therefore, to study the Constitution through its evolution paying particular attention to the process of legal integration within the structures of the Albertine Statute and to the amendment mechanisms of the constitutional text. The preamblePreamble of the Albertine Statute speaks of «perpetual and irrevocable fundamental lawFundamental law». The word «perpetual» meant the prohibition of revoking constitutional concession, while the word «irrevocable» was intended as a pact between the Sovereign and the NationNation. Over the years, very few were the changes to the letter of the Albertine Statute. The interpretation and the practice represented the most important mechanisms of constitutional change. A primary role was acknowledged to non-written norms. In this perspective, it may well be said that the Italian Constitution consisted in something more than the written text and dwelt in the spirit and not in the letter of the Albertine Statute.