La disciplina dell'adozione tra scelta legislativa e decisione giurisprudenziale

This article explores the Constitutional Court’s evolving jurisprudence on adoption, which has progressively reshaped the institution within a constitutional framework centered on the person and her relational dimension. The Court’s reasoning reveals a gradual shift from a formal and typified conception of adoption to a substantive one, grounded in the best interests of the child as a dynamic constitutional criterion. By reconstructing the meaning of filiation considering affective ties and individual circumstances, the Court has transformed the legal paradigm into a relational one, extending the judge’s role in concretizing constitutional principles. This development enhances the effectiveness of rights protection but simultaneously exposes the legal system to interpretative fragmentation and to the erosion of legislative coherence. Adoption thus becomes a privileged site for observing the changing balance between law and constitutional adjudication, where judicial creativity operates within the silences of a hesitant legislator. The open question remains how the constitutional order can reconcile the need to adapt to social transformation with the preservation of its normative consistency.