Applicabilità e validità delle norme del diritto internazionale

The relations between national legal systems and international law and, more specifically, the reception of human rights international norms in national states, pose very complex theoretical difficulties of the utmost institutional relevance. In recent years a new interpretation of such rela- tions has been offered, centered in the distinction between validity and applicability of legal norms. In this paper we offer a critical analysis of that proposal, introducing initially some preliminary remarks on the scope and meaning of the key notions of validity and applicability. On that basis we try to show some problematic consequences that follow from the interpretation examined and conclude with some observations in order to elaborate an alternative model of reconstruction.