Editing National flag (section)

==Process of adoption==

The national flag is often mentioned or described in a country's [[constitution]], but its detailed description may be delegated to a flag law passed by the legislature, or even [[Delegated legislation|secondary legislation]] or in monarchies a [[Order in Council|decree]].

Thus, the national flag is mentioned briefly in the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany]] of 1949 "the federal flag is black-red-gold" (art. 22.2 ''Die Bundesflagge ist schwarz-rot-gold''), but its proportions were regulated in a document passed by the government in the following year. The [[Flag of the United States]] is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777.

Minor design changes of national flags are often passed on a legislative or executive level, while substantial changes have constitutional character. The design of the [[flag of Serbia]] omitting the communist star of the [[flag of Yugoslavia]] was a decision made in the [[Serbian constitutional referendum, 1992|1992 Serbian constitutional referendum]], but the adoption of a coat of arms within the flag was based on a government "recommendation" in 2003, adopted legislatively in 2009 and again subject to a minor design change in 2010. The flag of the United States underwent numerous changes because the number of stars represents the number of states, proactively defined in a [[Flag Acts (United States)|Flag Act]] of 1818 to the effect that "on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag"; it was changed most recently in 1960 with the accession of [[Hawaii]].
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| image1            = Flag of Italy (1861–1946).svg
| width1            = 170
| alt1              = 
| caption1          = Flag of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] (1861–1946)
| image2            = Flag of Italy.svg
| width2            = 170
| alt2              = 
| caption2          = Flag of the [[Italian Republic]] (1946–present)
| footer            = 
}}

On 17 March 1861, there was the [[proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]], a formal act that sanctioned, with a normative act of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the birth of the unified Kingdom of Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sunuraghe.it/2013/regno-di-sardegna-regno-ditalia-repubblica-italiana |title=Regno di Sardegna, Regno d'Italia, Repubblica Italiana |date=19 March 2013 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126191843/https://www.sunuraghe.it/2013/regno-di-sardegna-regno-ditalia-repubblica-italiana |url-status=live }}</ref> On 15 April 1861, the flag of the [[Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia]], in the form of a green, white and red tricolour, was declared the [[Flag of Italy|flag of the newly formed Kingdom of Italy]].<ref>Regio decreto n. 2072 del 24 settembre 1923, convertito nella legge n. 2264 del 24 dicembre 1923</ref> The tricolour therefore continued to be the national flag also of the new State, although not officially recognised by a specific law,{{sfn|Villa|2010|p=26}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/bandiere/storia_bandiera.html|title=Storia della bandiera italiana|access-date=14 January 2016|archive-date=16 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116020632/http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/bandiere/storia_bandiera.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref> but regulated with regard to the shape of military banners.{{sfn|Maiorino|2002|p=201}}{{sfn|Bellocchi|2008|p=105}}{{sfn|Busico|2005|p=45}} With the royal decree nº 2072 of 24 September 1923 and subsequently with the law nº2264 of 24 December 1925, the Italian tricolour officially became the national flag of the Kingdom of Italy.{{sfn|Busico|2005|p=65}}{{sfn|Villa|2010|p=31}} On 13 June 1946, the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|Italian Republic was officially founded]] and the last [[king of Italy]] [[Umberto II of Italy|Umberto II]], who succeeded his father [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]] on 9 May 1946, left the country on 13 June into exile. On the same day, the tricolour with the Savoy coat of arms in the centre was lowered from the [[Quirinal Palace]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cristinasiccardi.it/2-giugno-ricordo-di-un-galantuomo-umberto-ii-di-savoia-ultimo-re-ditalia-2/|title=2 giugno. Ricordo di un galantuomo: Umberto II di Savoia, ultimo Re d'Italia|access-date=15 March 2021|language=it|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407211235/https://www.cristinasiccardi.it/2-giugno-ricordo-di-un-galantuomo-umberto-ii-di-savoia-ultimo-re-ditalia-2/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Italian flag was modified with the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers No. 1 of 19 June 1946. Compared to the monarchic banner, the Savoy coat of arms was eliminated.{{sfn|Maiorino|2002|p=273}}{{sfn|Villa|2010|p=33}}{{sfn|Tarozzi|1999|p=333}} This decision was later confirmed in the session of 24 March 1947 by the [[Constituent Assembly of Italy|Constituent Assembly]], which decreed the insertion of article 12 of the [[Italian Constitution]], subsequently ratified by the [[Italian Parliament]].

A change in national flag is often due to a change of regime, especially following a [[civil war]] or [[revolution]]. In such cases, the military origins of the national flag and its connection to political ideology ([[form of government]], monarchy vs. republic vs. theocracy, etc.) remains visible. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a [[political symbolism|political symbol]].

The [[flag of Germany]], for instance, was a tricolour of black-white-red under the [[German Empire]], inherited from the [[North German Confederation]] (1866). The [[Weimar Republic]] that followed adopted a black-red-gold tricolour. [[Nazi Germany]] went back to black-white-red in 1933, and black-red-gold was reinstituted by the two successor states, [[West Germany]] and [[East Germany]], with East Germany's flag being [[defacement (flag)|defaced]] with Communist symbols, following [[World War II]]. Similarly the [[flag of Libya]] introduced with the creation of the [[Kingdom of Libya]] in 1951 was abandoned in 1969 with the [[coup d'état]] led by [[Muammar Gaddafi]]. It was used again by [[National Transitional Council]] and by [[anti-Gaddafi forces]] during the [[2011 Libyan Civil War|Libyan Civil War]] in 2011 and officially adopted by the [[Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration]].