The establishment of the Regional Administrative Tribunals (TAR) by the Act of 6 December 1971 constitutes a decisive moment in the development of Italian administrative justice. The process that led to the creation of this new jurisdiction was neither immediate nor linear. More than twenty years elapsed before Article 125 of the 1948 Constitution was finally implemented. That provision entrusted the ordinary legislature with the task of establishing first-instance judicial bodies in each of the 20 Italian Regions, supplemented by detached sections in 9 Regions.
Pending the creation of the new tribunals, administrative justice at the peripheral level continued to be exercised by bodies of earlier origin, dating back to the liberal era and the Fascist period. Within that earlier framework, judicial review focused primarily on the legality of the administrative act as such. By contrast, the constitutional order of 1948 envisaged a broader system, designed to ensure comprehensive judicial protection for individuals against acts of administrative authority.
My article examines the main stages that led to the 1971 reform. It focuses, in particular, on the work of the Second Forti Commission, established in the immediate post-war period, and the debates within the Constituent Assembly, before turning to the intervention of the Constitutional Court in the 1960s, when several first-instance judicial bodies were declared unconstitutional for lack of independence and impartiality. The analysis also addresses the main issues that emerged during the parliamentary debates leading to the enactment of the 1971 Act. Notably, it examines the proper scope of jurisdiction, the composition of the new tribunals, the continuity with pre-existing institutions, and the need for institutional innovation in the light of the principles enshrined in the Constitution.
Retracing the essential stages that led to the establishment of the Regional Administrative Tribunals makes it possible to reflect on broader issues of administrative justice, including the scope of judicial protection, the relationship between citizens and public administration, and the limits of administrative power within a democratic State.
Posted by Federica Paletti, Associate Professor of Legal History (University of Brescia)
This piece presents the key points made in a chapter published in Administrative Justice, Regional Courts and Legal Certainty – A Comparative Overview, V Parisio (ed) (Giappichelli 2025).