This article - unpulished, original and at invitation of the executive and scientific Committee - examines the Constitutional Court and attemps to argue, based on an analysis os some of its judgements, that it occupies a fundamental position amongst the organs that sustain the Italian form of government. This is a position derived not from the "formal" text of the Constitution, but from powers which the Court itself has conferred upon itself over the course of its fiftyfive years history is some well directed judgements of "material" constitution.
