Gaspare Ambrosini (24 October 1886 in Favara, Sicily – 17 August 1985 in

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) was an Italian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

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Career and contributions

In 1911 Ambrosini became the youngest professor of constitutional law of his times. In 1918, acting as private assistant to aging Italian Prime Minister

Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (; 19 May 1860 – 1 December 1952) was an Italian statesman, who served as the prime minister of Italy from October 1917 to June 1919. Orlando is best known for representing Italy in the 1919 Paris Peace Conference with ...

, played a noted role in the negotiation of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

. Ambrosini escaped having to align himself with the ideology of

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

first by teaching colonial law and then by conducting extensive milestone studies on

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and electoral systems. After the end of

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, in 1946, Ambrosini was elected to the

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and a key participant of the 18-member committee credited with the actual drafting of the

Italian Constitution The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the previous Constitution of the Ki ...

. He invented and introduced into the Italian Constitution the “regional state”, as an intermediary figure between the federal and the unitary state, in which regions have autonomy under the constitution rather than limited original sovereign power. This type of arrangement was foreshadowed in the Cadiz Constitution of 1812 and was followed in a number of subsequent constitutions including the 1978

Spanish Constitution The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...

. Ambrosini in 1948 was elected to the

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, where became the Chairman of its Foreign Relations Committee and Colonies. In this capacity he played a key role in advocating Italy’s participation in the

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and providing political and academic leadership in the creation of the European Community for Steel and Coal and the European Community for Atomic Energy. With his academic assistance, these two entities were conceived along the until-then unknown figure of a “super-national” international entity with limited but own sovereign powers. This novel idea was at the foundation of the subsequent process of integration leading first to the European Economic Communities (EEC) and then to the

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. He also championed and justified with the UN the Italian international protectorate over

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which ended at the end of 1959. In 1955 Ambrosini was elected by Parliament as a Justice of the Italian Constitutional Court, of which he became the Chief Justice in 1962 holding that position until the end of 1967. He is credited with watershed constitutional decisions which asserted the primacy of the Italian Constitution not only over the laws adopted by the democratic Parliament but also in respect of those passed during the preceding fascist period; as well as the primacy of European law over Italian law. In this latter respect the Italian Constitutional Court opened and paved the path soon followed by the German Constitutional Court and many years later by other European member of the EEC leading to primacy of European law over the law of any member states. Until his death Ambrosini chaired a government institution which meticulously documented all Italian activities in Africa. He left behind a rich legacy of more than 50 treaties and books on Italian and comparative constitutional law, international law, history of institutions of government and African studies. At the age of 86, he wrote and published his last treaty comparing the Italian constitution to the principles of the French revolution and the American independence. Having maintained his university tenure for over half a century, he shaped the thinking of three generations of Italian jurists.

Recognition

One of Rome’s squares has been dedicated to him.

Honour

* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (5 june 1956)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambrosini, Gaspare 1886 births 1985 deaths People from Favara, Sicily Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Deputies of Legislature I of Italy Jurists from Sicily Presidents of the Constitutional Court of Italy Politicians from the Province of Agrigento 20th-century Italian judges Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic