The Constitution under attack: Legislative and Executive as mutagenic factors

Abstract

The rigid Constitutions should be modified only by means of the amendment or revision process they envisage to. Analysts, however, identify a number of constitutional amendments that do not follow this script, not changing, even, its normative text. These are the so-called “informal changes” or “mutations” of Constitution. In the Welfare State, the Legislative and the Executive play an extremely active role in the adoption of laws, regulations and measures that, under the pretext of implementing the Constitution, modify it. It is expected that the judiciary will correct any excesses or deviations, but this expectation is not always confirmed, either because it does not identify any problem, or because these changes are not questioned in the courts.

Keywords: informal change of the constitution, constitutional mutation, executive power, legislative power.