SILVIO BERETTA

La «Costituzione economica»: genesi e principi

N. 147

Summary - The a., first of all, underlines the limits implicit in isolating within a system of interconnected norms - as necessarily in a Constitution - a group of propositions (just the so-called "Economic Constitution"), and in any case the opportunity to link the examination of such norms with the political-institutional events of their formation, moreover with the programs of the political forces and with the facts and measures of economic policy that characterize the period in which the Constitution came into existence. After treating briefly the preliminary work carried out particularly on economic topics, at the Ministry for the Constituent, the precise political will is recalled to entrust the real elaboration of the Constitution to a political Assembly, nevertheless provided with the necessary supports of technical advice, and is discussed the problem, much debated at that time, of the respective role of the constitutional and of the ordinary norms, linked with that of the so-called "Preambolo".

Within the fundamental principles are identified mainly in the social catholic thought (particularly relevant appears the so-called Codice di Camaldoli) the roots of the formulation of the first articles of the Constitution. From the fundamental principles starts the examination of the content, especially economic, of the constitutional norms as regards autonomies, as well as the right-duty of work with the relative system of guarantees.

Subsequently the genesis is reconstructed of the trade-union norms and on the right of strike, likewise the genesis of the norm on the freedom of private economic initiative and on its coordination to social aims.

The complex elaboration of art. 42 on the right of property and on its limits is afterwards utilized to draw relevant constitutional profiles, from the various instances of publicization of the enterprises, to the role of the cooperation, to the participation of the dependents to the rnanagement of the enterprises, to the enunciations regarding land reform. Credit discipline, fundamental principles in fiscal and budget matters and the role of the Consiglio Nazionale dell’Econmia e del Lavoro bring to an end the survey of the principles of the "Economic Constitution " and of their