In 1948, during the first war of italian national independence, Antonio Rosmini had strongly claimed that, in the case of Italy, a good constitution had to be approved before the unification of the Peninsula could be accomplished. In his view, only after establishing an adequate "constitutional statute", could "substance" be given to society. As it is well known, things went in a very different way. National Unity was achieved without any preliminary reference to the order of constitutional institutions. The Statute (written constitution), which had been granted by Carl Albert to the Kingdom of Sardinia, was extended to the Kindom of Italy, with several "tacit modifications", due to habits. But the life of the representative government turned out shaky, until it fell due to the rising of fascism. The subsequent fascist regime also fell, however, because of the defeat in World War Two. The so-called "First Republic" followed, and it also finished, at the end of the cold war. Today, the results of the events of the recent past seem uncertain. The common trait of the three constitutional experiences of united Italy seems to be the will to establish an order informed by positive law, and hence grounded on the will of completely independent men. This is the result of abandoning any reference to the superiority of a transcendent natural law.