SOMMARIO: 1. La Corte costituzionale e la pronuncia avanguardista - 2. I presupposti ragionati in sede Costituente dell’art. 8, terzo comma - 3. Ruolo delle intese nel processo storico di equiparazione con la condizione riservata alla Chiesa cattolica - 4. La fase dell’affermazione del pluralismo aperto a tutte le confessioni - 5. I nuovi soggetti religiosi e le loro rappresentanze - 6 Il contenuto delle intese tra diritto speciale e diritto comune - 7. Conclusioni.

The agreements to the test: new actors and old content

ABSTRACT: The Constitutional Court, in its judgement, has brought to light the critical aspects of the "system of agreements", highlighting the lack of a complete regulation of the procedure of stipulation. A short historical journey, starting from the works discussed in the Constituent Assembly, helps us to understand the evolution of the bilateral model provided for by Art. 8, third paragraph, of the Italian Constitution: from an initial phase in which it has been placed as a useful tool to fulfill an equal treatment to a subsequent one in which it has been used as a means of affirmation of open religious pluralism, to arrive at assuming an autonomous function unrelated to the first two paragraphs of Art. 8. The current system of "agreements-photocopies" can only be overcome by a general law on religious freedom that takes into account the specific content of the agreements. In this way, the agreements themselves would regain their original function of special law, reserved for religious confessions of sacred origin