The thesis is about the controversial question of what is meant by economic constitution and what its interpretations may be. The concept was developed in the context of the doctrinal debate at the Constituent Assembly of the Weimar Republic. This debate has influenced, in many ways, the drafting of the Italian Constitution, as well as the interpretations of the economic constitution that have been proposed by doctrine and jurisprudence.
Over the decades, different interpretations of economic constitution have been proposed. Each one is characterized from an ideological point of view, capable of opening a different perspective on the interaction between public powers, competition and inequalities.
Since the 1980s, there has been a progressive weakening of the constraints fixed by the economic constitution on the dynamics of the economy. The pandemic emergency has, however, determined a paradigm shift, with the beginning of a new role of public powers in the European context. It is necessary to answer what is the economic constitution, in the European and national context, what interpretation can be married and what concrete consequences there are, in terms of public power policies in the economic sphere.