Effectiveness of the ECHR into Italian legal order: context and scope of the disapplicability of domestic rules

Some recent decisions of administrative courts once again raised the issue on the effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Italian system and the role of the ordinary courts in its applicationo. The question is not new and recurring actions taken by the ordinary courts to ensure a direct (or immediate) application of the provisions of the European Convention, disapplying incompatible domestic laws. These initiatives, constantly rejected by the Constitutional Court, starting from the famous “twin sentences” no. 348 and no. 349 of October 24 , 2007, showing particular force in the presence of judgments of condemnation against Italy issued by the European Court of Human Rights, justified on the basis of a duty of the judge, as organ of the State, to give effect to these decisions pursuant to Article 46 of the European Convention of Human Rights.