About constitutionalism and parliamentarism: when Constitutional Courts need the legislator

The paper aims at investigating which effects derive on the role of Constitutional Courts from the increasing difficulty shown by the legislator, in contemporary pluralistic societies, in balancing and implementing constitutional rights. Originally seen as anti-majoritarian bodies, Constitutional Courts were often conceived as negative legislators and forms of judicial scrutiny on the activity of the legislator. This explains why, once the legislator loses its capacity to set some kind of regulation of constitutional rights, it becomes more difficult for Constitutional Courts to play the role they have been conceived for. This brings Constitutional Courts to try to establish forms of direct dialogue with the legislator and in some cases even to protect the role of the Parliament. The paper will consider examples taken from the recent activity of the Italian Constitutional Court and will reason on the respective evolution, in continental Europe, of constitutionalism and parliamentarism.