The “Juvenile Question” in the Italian Constitution: A Legal-Historical Perspective on the Preparatory Works of the Constitutional Assembly

Abstract

This article examines the genesis of Article 31, paragraph 2, of the 1948 Italian Constitution, which commits the Republic to protect motherhood, childhood, and youth by supporting the necessary institutions for that purpose. The study focuses on a systematic legal-historical examination of the Constituent Assembly’s preparatory works – subcommittee minutes, plenary debates, amendments, and individual reports – to reconstruct the intense discussion that shaped the final wording of the provision. Drawing on earlier forms of public intervention in childhood and youth protection (from Liberal Italy to the fascist period), the Constituent Assembly redefined both the scope and nature of State involvement. Through careful linguistic and conceptual choices, any monopolistic or totalitarian approach was rejected, thereby laying the foundations for instruments capable of promoting the human dignity and free development of minors within a democratic and pluralistic constitutional framework.