On March 17, Italians began voting in a confirmatory constitutional referendum on a sweeping judicial overhaul — the so-called “Nordio Reform” — advanced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government and framed publicly as a technical modernization of the judiciary. The reform would separate the career tracks of judges and prosecutors, split the High Council of the Judiciary (CSM) into two separate bodies, and create a new High Disciplinary Court, dramatically reshaping the institutional architecture governing judicial independence in Italy. Critics, including 80% of ordinary judges and prosecutors who organized formal protests under the National Magistrates’ Association, argue the reform is designed to insulate politicians from judicial accountability by weakening prosecutorial independence. Prominent jurist Gustavo Zagrebelsky described it as “a retaliation by certain politicians against certain judiciaries to shift the constitutional balance in favour of the former’s impunity.” The MEDEL association of European magistrates has characterized the reform as part of a broader European pattern of executive encroachment on judicial institutions.

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