El secreto de Estado en el marco constitucional, legislativo y jurisprudencial italiano

This chapter deals with the Italian legislative framework on state secrecy. After discussing the constitutional basis of secrecy in Italy, the analysis dwells on Italian primary sources, highlighting their development throughout the years and critically examining main features and changes. In particular, the chapter focuses on oversight mechanisms aimed at scrutinizing the invocation of state secrecy by the President of the Council of Minister, considering the role of COPASIR and of the Constitutional Court. The research also offers an insight into the Italian Constitutional Court’s case law on secrecy, with particular regard to the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar. Here, this study remarks how Italian constitutional judges showed deference to the government. The analysis leads to criticize this approach, claiming for a stronger role of existing oversight mechanisms, in order to avoid the risk that the invocation of secrecy violates basic principles of the rule of law, which should never be given up, even in stressful times of international terrorism.