Le monarchie cessate: l’esperienza italiana nella prospettiva comparata. Riflessioni finali sulla sezione monografica

Ceased Monarchies: the Italian Experience in a Comparative Perspective. Concluding Reflections on the Monographic Section

Abstract

The first part of the essay analyses the transition from monarchy to republic in the Italian legal system, focusing on the constitutional choices made to guarantee the irreversibility of the republican form of government and to sanction the Savoy dynasty. At the centre of the investigation is the XIII transitional and final provision of the Constitution, interpreted as a rule with a dual function: guaranteeing the institutional structure and serving as an instrument of political and symbolic responsibility. A special attention is paid to the patrimonial dimension of the transition, with reference to the Crown Jewels affair and recent case law. The analysis concludes with a comparative European overview and a reflection on the meaning of ‘constitutional memory’ in the Italian experience.

In the second part this article analyses the cessation of monarchies as an autonomous category of comparative public law, distinct from ordinary regime change and democratic transition. Drawing on a wide and geographically diverse set of cases, it shows that the end of monarchy rarely results from a purely legal procedure and almost always originates in extra-juridical events such as war, revolution, military coups, foreign intervention, or deep legitimacy crises. Law typically intervenes ex post, stabilising and rationalising a rupture already produced at the political level. Focusing on modes of abolition, legal instruments, treatment of dynasties, and royal property, the article highlights the tension between constitutional continuity and institutional rupture, and interprets ceased monarchies as a privileged laboratory for analysing constituent power in modern constitutional orders.

Keywords: Italian constitutional transition; Abolition of monarchy; Constitutional sanctions; Crown property; Ceased monarchies; Constitutional rupture; Regime transition