ITALIAN CONSTITUTION
121 - 135

Article 121 [Regional Organs]
(1) Regional organs are: the regional council, the regional cabinet and its president. (2) The regional council exercises the legislative powers granted to the region and all other functions conferred on it by the constitution and by law. It may propose bills to the chambers. (3) The regional cabinet is the executive authority of the region. (4) The president of the regional cabinet represents the region; he conducts and is responsible for the general policy of the regional cabinet; he promulgates regional laws and regulations; he conducts the administrative functions delegated to the region by the state in accordance with the instructions of central government.

Article 122 [Regional Form of Government]
(1) The electoral system, the cases of ineligibility and incompatibility of the president and other members of the regional cabinet and the regional council are defined by the laws of the region within the limits of the fundamental principles determined by a state law also specifying the term of elected organs. (2) Nobody may be at the same time a member of a regional council or a regional cabinet and of either chamber of parliament or of another regional council or another regional cabinet or of the european parliament. (3) The regional council elects from its own members a president and a president's office. (4) Regional councilors may not be made liable for opinions expressed or votes cast in the exercise of their functions. (5) The president of the regional cabinet, unless provided differently by regional statute, is elected by universal and direct suffrage. The elected president appoints and dismisses the members of the regional cabinet.

Article 123 [Regional Statutes]
(1) Every Region must have a statute determining the form of government and the fundamental principles of the organization and the functioning of the region in accordance with the constitution. The statute defines the exercise of initiative and of referendum on regional laws and regional administrative decisions and the publication of regional laws and regulations. (2) The statutes is adopted and amended by the regional council by a law approved twice by a majority of its members; votes being taken within an interval of no less than two months. This law must not be submitted to the government's commissioner. Within thirty days of its publication, the central government may challenge the constitutionality of a regional statute before the constitutional court. (3) The statute has to be submitted to a popular referendum when, within three months of its publication, a request is made by one fiftieth of the electors of the region or by one fifth of the members of the regional council. The statute submitted to referendum may not be promulgated unless approved by a majority of valid votes. (4) The statute of every region has to provide for a council of local governments, which function as a body for consultations between the region and local authorities.

Article 124 [Government Commissioner]
{ abolished }

Article 125 [Control of Legitimacy]
{ abolished }

Article 126 [Dissolution of the Regional Council and Dismissal of the president]
(1) By means of a decree of the president stating the reasons for it, the dissolution of the regional council and the dismissal of the president of the regional cabinet may be ordered when they have acted against the constitution or when they have committed serious violations of the law. The dissolution and the dismissal may also be ordered for reasons of national security. The decree is adopted after consulting a commission for regional affairs composed of senators and deputies and formed according to the law of the republic. (2) The regional council may express its non-confidence in the president of the cabinet by a motion for which reasons must be stated; it must be signed by at least one fifth of its members, voted by roll-call, and approved by a majority of its members. The motion may be debated no earlier than three days after it has been filed. (3) The vote of no-confidence against the president of the regional cabinet elected by universal and direct suffrage, as well as the removal, the permanent impediment, the death or the resignation of the president entail the resignation of the cabinet and the dissolution of the council. The same consequences follow from simultaneous resignation of a majority of the members of the council.

Article 127 [Constitutionality of Law]
(1) Whenever the government regards a regional law as exceeding the powers of the region, it may raise the question of its constitutionality before the constitutional court within sixty days of the publication of the law. (2) Whenever a region regards a state law, another act of the state having the force of law, or a law of another region as infringing on its own sphere of powers, it may raise the question of its constitutionality before the constitutional court within sixty days of the publication of said law or act.

Article 128 [Provincial and Municipal Autonomy]
{ abolished }

Article 129 [Decentralization]
{ abolished }

Article 130 [Legitimacy of Provincial and Municipal Decisions]
{ abolished }

Article 131 [List of Regions]
The following regions are instituted: Piemonte; Aosta Valley; Lombardia; Southern Trentino; Veneto; Friuli-Venezia Giulia; Liguria; Emilia-Romagna; Toscana; Umbria; Marche; Lazio; Abruzzo; Molise; Campania; Puglia; Basilicata; Calabria; Sicily; Sardinia.

Article 132 [Regional Boundaries]
(1) By means of a constitutional act and after consulting the regional councils, existing regions may be merged or new regions created, provided the population of any new region is at least one million, when it is so requested by as many municipal councils as represent at least one third of the population involved, and when the proposal has been approved by the majority of the involved population in a referendum. (2) With the assent of a majority of the people of the province or provinces concerned, and of the municipality or municipalities concerned, expressed by means of a referendum, after consulting the regional council, a state law may allow provinces and municipalities which request it to be detached from one region and assigned to another.

Article 133 [Provincial and Municipal Boundaries]
(1) Provincial boundaries may be changed and new provinces created within the area of a region by laws of the republic following a request of municipalities and after consulting the region. (2) Each Region, after consulting the population involved, may within its own territory and by its own acts establish new municipalities and modify their boundaries and names.

Title VI Constitutional Guarantees
Section I The Constitutional Court

Article 134 [Jurisdiction]
The constitutional court decides: - disputes concerning the constitutionality of laws and acts with the force of law adopted by state or regions; - conflicts arising over the allocation of powers between branches of government within the state, between the state and the regions, and between regions; - on accusations raised against the president in accordance with the constitution.

Article 135 [Composition]
(1) The constitutional court consists of fifteen justices; one third being appointed by the president, one third by parliament in joint session, and one third by ordinary and administrative supreme courts. (2) Justices are chosen from among magistrates including those in retirement, from among supreme ordinary and administrative courts, from among university full professors of law, and from among lawyers with at least twenty years of practice. (3) Justices are appointed for nine years, their term beginning the day they are sworn in and with no re-appointment. (4) At the end of this term justices have to leave office and may no longer exercise its functions. (5) The court elects from among its members and according to rules established by law its president who shall remain in office for three years and may be re-elected, but not exceed the ordinary term of justices. (6) The office of justice is incompatible with membership in parliament or in a regional council, with the exercise of the legal profession, or with any other position and office defined by law. (7) When sitting to decide on a case of impeachment against the president, the court consists of sixteen additional members, who are drawn by lot from a list of citizens elected by parliament every nine years, from among those possessing the qualifications for election to the senate, by the same procedures as for the appointment of the ordinary justices.

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