Cartabia and Cassese at 'Macro' discuss the Constitutional Courts under attack

On 20 September from 12.30 pm, Macro returns with two special guests: Marta Cartabia, President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court and former Justice Minister, and Sabino Cassese, former Judge of the Constitutional Court. The live broadcast will be on the website and social channels of Il Sole 24 Ore.

The two experts in Law and Constitutionalism will discuss the transnational clash between Politics and Justice in the episode entitled "Constitutional Courts under attack: what is happening?". In recent years, in fact, in several countries the constitutional courts or, in general, the judicial system have been subjected to pressure, criticism or attacks, often with the aim of weakening their independence. The phenomenon, known as 'erosion of justice' or 'self-stratification', is usually associated with governments seeking to centralise power and reduce democratic checks and balances. It has affected Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, Venezuela, Israel, among others. Even Poland and Hungary, where young democracies have had internal disagreements over the judiciary, have come to clash on this issue with the European Union, with different outcomes.

In other contexts, such as the United States, the Supreme Court has split civil society by applying a conservative and literalist approach to its rulings, generating a climate of growing distrust towards it and leading the Democratic administration of Joe Biden to propose some reforms to its functioning and membership.

Three hundred years have passed since Montesquieu theorised about the separation of the three fundamental powers of the state (legislative, executive, judicial); today, the importance of this separation for the proper functioning of democracy is well established. What we are witnessing, however, is a slow erosion of these powers, with the judiciary in particular paying the price.