The law left several important issues undefined, such as the exact legal nature of the council and its place within the Italian constitutional system.

The continually changing balance of power between the key institutions of the Italian State (especially between the President and the Prime Minister), along with the lack of published guidelines on the workings and activities of the Consiglio Supremo di Difesa, have prevented its functions from being solidified by any sort of constitutional convention more durable than the tenures of the individual officeholders who have sat on it.

But this constitutional convention did not last long and the council that emerged under President Giovanni Gronchi was substantially different from that of the early 1950s.

[8] Meetings of the Council can be attended by the heads of the four armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Carabinieri), the President of the Council of State, and any other individuals with particular scientific, industrial, and economic knowledge or expertise in military problems.

The council examines general issues relating to national defence on the basis of general directives formulated by the executive and the Parliament and produces directives which are binding on the President, the Council of Ministers (and therefore all the individual ministries) and the leaders of the armed forces.