The king. – The first constitutional organ of the current Italian political order is the crown , consisting of a single physical person, the king , who repeats his office directly from the constitution and exercises state powers in the name and on behalf of the state. The throne is hereditary according to the Salic law, interpreted in the sense that women are excluded and preference is given to the descending line on the collateral and in the same line to the firstborn. Only legitimate descendants are admitted to the succession and as long as they belong to the ruling dynasty, that is, to the royal family. The passage of the crown is carried out ipso iure at the time of death. The king, ascending the throne, swears, in the presence of the assembled chambers, to loyally observe the statute. The person of the king is vested with some special rights, constituting special prerogatives (see king; civil list). When the king is physically or legally unable to exercise the powers of the crown, the institution of the regency is made (see). The custom has admitted the institution of lieutenancy (v.), Consisting in a provisional delegation, made by the king himself to a person, of all or part of the royal powers, usually those relating to current affairs.
The king is the supreme organ of the Italian state: he is “the supreme head of the state” (art. 5 of the statute), of which he represents the unity. In legislative activity, the initiative of laws, their sanction and promulgation belongs to the king; in the administration, he is the essential constitutional organ of the executive power; in the jurisdictional court, justice emanates from the king and is administered in his name by the judges he institutes (art. 68 of the statute). The king also has the right of pardon.
The king appoints senators, convenes the national constituency, opens and closes or extends parliamentary sessions, and appoints all high-ranking state officials. The king has the command of all military forces and therefore the power to call citizens to arms both for conscription and for mobilization and to provide for the organization of the military forces, although in fact the actual organization of the forces themselves falls within the attributions. of the Government and the Chief of General Staff are directly dependent on the Head of Government. The king represents the state in international relations, declares war, makes peace, alliance and trade treaties (Article 5 of the statute). The king is therefore the ruler: this position, however, of the king does not place the other constitutional organs of the state in a condition of subordination vis-à-vis him. This would be incompatible with the constitutional character of those organs: but he has a wider competence than the other organs, because he participates in all the fundamental powers of the state and has a pre-eminence, which however over the constitutional organs is only of form. Furthermore, no attribution can be exercised by the crown without the assistance of another organ of the state, usually a minister.
The National Fascist Party. – In connection with the Grand Council of Fascism, the position that the National Fascist Party has been assuming in Italian public law should be noted. Before the 1922 revolution, it represented an out-of-state political organization, which aimed to win over the state government to implement its program there. But, having assumed fascism in power, the party entered the state and became part of the state organization as the driving force of the fundamental manifestations of national life. By now, retaining the name of the party, it has been transformed into a subsidiary institution of the state, subordinate to it: that is, as it has been described, into an “auxiliary of the state”.
There is much evidence of this legal recognition of the party. The party statute is approved by royal decree (the current statute was approved by decree no. 1456 of 17 November 1932); the party secretary is appointed by royal decree and the members of the directorate by decree of the head of the government; the party secretary can be called to attend the meetings of the Council of Ministers; he is, among other things, a member by right of the Supreme Defense Commission, the Higher National Education Council, the National Council of Corporations and the Corporate Central Committee; he, and his deputy secretaries, are part of the Grand Council. He is its secretary; designates some members of the provincial administrative council and other public bodies; in court precedence, rank positions are assigned to party positions; all the bodies, associations and institutes promoted by the party can be recognized the legal capacity, which, among other things, has been recognized in the direction of the party; the fasces is considered, to all intents and purposes, an emblem of the state and has been included in the coat of arms of the state.
Thus, if the party as a whole cannot be considered a juridical person, neither public nor private, nor a real organ of the state, it is undoubtedly a public institution recognized by the state and integrating its action.
Judicial power. – As for the judicial power, referring to the judicial item, order, it will suffice here to note that art. 68 of the statute states that “justice emanates from the king and is exercised in his name by the judges he institutes”. However, this must be understood only in the formal sense: in essence, the judges exercise their functions independently of each royal delegation: the judicial power is a constitutional power, which draws its origin directly from the law. Not only for the statute, but also, for the aforementioned law no. 100, only the law can regulate the judiciary and the jurisdiction of judges. As regards the relations between the various powers, in our law the magistrate cannot review the constitutionality of laws and legislative decrees or decree laws: it can instead examine the legality of the regulations. Governmental power cannot disrupt the constitutional order of jurisdictions, nor give orders to judges on how to resolve the issues submitted to them. The king participates directly in the judicial function, with the power of grace due to him (see extinction: Criminal law) not as an organ of the judiciary, but as a constitutional organ of the government: that is, it is a political power.
