THE PROTECTION OF ANIMAL RIGHTS

ITALY AND SWITZERLAND, CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED

Resumo

With the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, the constitutional reform that provides for the amendment of article 9 and article 41 of the Italian Constitution (const. law n. 1/2022) represents an important turning point in terms of protection of the environment, ecosystems, and animal rights. Although this achievement sets an important benchmark for environmental constitutionalism, the peculiarities of the modifications made to the Constitution and their impact on the legislature's decision-making process based on the established legal reserve need to be investigated. The following paper proposes to explore the protection of animals integrated into the fundamental principles of the constitutional text, through a comparison of the amendments regarding articles 9 and 41 of the Italian Constitution with those made in 1992 through article 120 in the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation, the first country in the world to constitutionalise the principle of the dignity of animals. Through the comparative study of the two legal systems mentioned, the concepts of 'dignity', 'integrity' and 'creature' will be examined to outline the material applicability in the short-term, and the possible long-term effects which can be reasonably expected as a consequence of the amendments to the Italian constitutional text. In this regard, a comparison is proposed by visualising the results obtained in the years following the approval of article 120 of the Swiss Constitution. Through the comparative study of the two constitutional texts with respect to the environmental issue and the legal status of animals and their rights, the objective seeks to investigate how climate change impacts legal systems and in what manner the law enforcement process can represent an efficient vehicle through which to address climate and environmental challenges.