Statuto

Statuto is the Italian term for a statute, charter, or set of by-laws that governs an organization or institution. In Italy and other Romance-language contexts, statuto denotes the formal document that defines an entity’s purpose, rules, and governance. In English usage, the corresponding concepts are statute, charter, or by-laws depending on the scope.

A statuto typically establishes the entity’s aims, membership and eligibility, governance structure, rights and duties of members and officers, rules for meetings and voting, financial provisions, and procedures for amendments or dissolution. It may specify the process to create, approve, and amend the document, and the conditions under which the organization can be dissolved or merged.

Legally, the statuto is binding on the organization’s members and leadership, and it often interacts with higher law. While it governs internal affairs, it can also affect third parties through contracts, registrations, or regulatory compliance. Amending a statuto usually requires a defined majority or notarial authentication.

A historically significant example is the Statuto Albertino of 1848, the constitutional charter granted by Charles Albert of Sardinia. It served as the constitution of the Kingdom of Sardinia and later of the Kingdom of Italy until it was superseded by the 1948 Constitution of Italy.

Statuto is used across contexts—corporate, nonprofit, municipal, and educational—often referred to as statuto sociale or statuti in organizational settings. The concept is parallel in many languages to the idea of a formal governing document.