La finestra sulla Corte costituzionale: modernizzazione necessaria, ricerca di legittimazione o finalità educativa?

The “rear window” on the Constitutional Court: search for political legitimacy or necessary modernization?

Abstract

The “rear window” on the Constitutional Court: search for political legitimacy or necessary modernization? –  Looking at the constitutional courts, the claim that courts “speak” only through their decisions seems to be long gone. Instead, we are witnessing an increasingly massive use of different communication tools (social networks, websites, podcasts, interaction of individual judges with sectors of civil society, press conferences and press releases, video footage of hearings). This paper will concentrate on one of these strategies, namely the presence of cameras in courtrooms, which is aimed at opening a window on the Courts and making individual judges and their work known to the public, without any mediation. The study of this strategy ultimately aims to investigate the reasons behind it: is it a necessary modernization? Does it hide pedagogical intentions? Or rather, is it a search for legitimization and popular consensus?

Keywords: Cameras; Civil society; Constitutional courts; Courtroom; Media and communication.