LA TUTELA E I LIMITI DELLA LIBERTA' DI RICERCA SCIENTIFICA IN ITALIA

What kind of protection is the Italian Constitution providing for the freedom of scientific research? Which are the limitations that can be put to the use of such freedom? These are the questions which this study tries to answer, taking as a starting point the reflection on how, in the past few years, scientific research has been able to deeply modify our lives allowing us to defeat once incurable diseases, at the same time, has forced us to question ourselves on the necessity to put limitations to the use of such freedom. Starting from an analysis of the historical origins of the constitutional rights given to scientific research, and a study of the related articles within the Italian Constitution, the attention was focused on the analysis of the limitations that legislative activities may put to the freedom of reserach. The main goal of this study is therefore to identify the evaluation criteria against which to assess the constitutionality of legislative action to restrict scientific research, also taking into consideration those instances in which the legislator requests the Public Administration the choice of the actual discipline related to this section.