The Principle of Non-Discrimination in the Italian Constitutional System: Hermeneutical Dimension and Application in the Recent Case of the Registration of Asylum Seekers

The essay aims to explain how the positive principle of equality and the negative principle of non-discrimination are two sides of the same coin: as all human beings are formally equal before the law, any kind of discrimination must be considered as a violation of the principle of equality. The constitutional principle, in other words, imposes to legislator reasonableness on choices and coherence. The article focuses in particular on a recent emblematic case of the current trend on application and interpretation of the principle of non-discrimination, which concerns asylum seekers in Italian legislation.