The mayor is the head of the communal government and the organ of its active ad ministration. He has, at the same time, as above mentioned, the dignity of a functionary of the central government. In spite of this complex position, his appointment is entrusted to the communal council, who elect him from among their number. The governor has the power to recall him from office as he has also the prerogative of selecting the communal council and of placing the administration of affairs in the hands of a commission in extraor dinary until the next election and for a period not exceeding six months. The mayor is as sisted in the exercise of his official functions by a body (giunta) of lawyers (assessors) elected also by the communal council. The pro vincial council elects a provincial deputation which, with its president, is the organ of the active administration pf the province itself.
Jurisdictionary Besides the parliamentary jurisdiction over the entire ad ministration of the kingdom of which mention was made (notably the practical drawing up of the obligatory balancing of expenses and the sum allowed by the government, which is con trolled by the Corte dei Conti), Italian public law has ordained a series of mutual inspec tions (controlli contensiosi), which are yet strictly jurisdictional.
The law of 1865 gives to the ordinary tri bunals the power to reinstate in his rights the citizen who has been wronged by an act of the public administration, abolishing the ancient government courts of controlli conten stosi, which formerly existed, modeled on those of France. • This full judicial power is, how ever, subordinated to two conditions: that a true and inherent subjective right of the citi zen should have been infringed; that the sen tence should be limited to the recognition of the wrong suffered in the specific case, without the ability to revoke in itself the administrative act. Thus much in regard to the theory of
the distinction between powers, which, although it has been discussed and is capable of discus sion in the abstract, remains one of the positive accepted unwritten laws of the Italian Consti tution. To offset the lack of protection of the legal sphere of individual interests caused by these limitations, a law of established a high tribunal of administrative justice (creat ing a special section of the government coun cil) which, with all the forms and guarantees of. legal procedure in contradictorio, adjudicates on the objective legality of the acts and pro visions of the administration, it being sufficient that the citizen should prove that not neces sarily a law but a legal privilege has been im paired by this act. The council of the govern ment in the seal of administrative justice has the privilege of annulling the impugned ad ministrative•decree. For the settlement of dis putes that may arise between the government authority and the judicial authority, the supreme tribunal is the highest court in the kingdom — the Court of Caseation in Rome.
Bibliography.— Consult Lowell, A. L.,