Una corte costituzionale per l’Unione europea? Un’introduzione

This introductory essay explores the ways in which the Court of Justice of the European Union has been conceived of as a Constitutional Court, resembling several Constitutional Courts of the Member States of the European Union embracing the so called Kelsenian model. After reviewing the ways in which both scholarly literature and the Court of Justice itself have emphasized the constitutional nature of the Court of Justice, building also on the case law related to the rule of law backsliding in which the Court of Justice exercises a special constitutional function in protecting European constitutional identity based on Art. 2 TEU, the essay introduces the several contributions of the special issues devoted to developing such a pivotal debate. Indeed, shedding light on both substantive and procedural aspects, all of them try to respond to the very same question: if and to what extent the Court of Justice can be considered a Constitutional Court.