Costituzionale

Costituzionale is an Italian adjective meaning relating to a constitution or to the constitutional order of a state. In law and politics, it is used to describe things that are derived from, governed by, or in accordance with the constitution, and to distinguish them from ordinary legislation. The term appears in phrases such as diritto costituzionale (constitutional law), principi costituzionali (constitutional principles), norme costituzionali (constitutional norms), and organi costituzionali (constitutional bodies), including the constitutional court in states that have one.

Etymology: from the Latin constitutio via the Italian word costituzione; the suffix -ale marks a relation to the noun constitution. The concept encompasses both the content of a country’s fundamental law and the processes by which power is allocated, constrained, and supervised.

In comparative law, costituzionale refers to the study of how constitutions organize the state, guarantee fundamental rights, and regulate relations between branches of government. It also relates to constitutionalism, the principle that political power must be exercised within the framework of a constitution. Constitutions may be codified in a single document, or the constitutional framework may be partly unwritten and customary, depending on the country. The term is widely used across civil law and common law traditions to signal that a matter is of a constitutional character rather than ordinary legislative matter.