Italy: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated by Heather Memess, August 2022

Italy as a nation is a relatively modern creation, being the result of a unification of numerous kingdoms, duchies and principalities in 1861. The French conquest of the Italian states in the 1790s introduced the Code Napoleon, and much legislation based on the French model survived in various jurisdictions over the next 50 years.

Although Italy is a unitary state according to the Constitution of 1948, a system of regional governments was established after the Second World War. Four "Special Regions" were set up in 1948, and a fifth in 1963, while the rest of the country was divided into 15 "Ordinary Regions" in a process lasting from 1970 to 1975.

Between 1865 and 1890 the usual complement of five codes for the whole of Italy was achieved: Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, Code of Commerce, Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure. A new Penal Code was introduced in 1931 and a Code of Civil Procedure in 1940. In 1942 a new Civil Code combined both civil and commercial law, so that there is no longer a separate Commercial Code. The current Code of Criminal Procedure appeared in 1988. To these four should be added the Code of Navigation (1942), which regulates both national and international sea and air transport. In addition to these are the military codes.

As with other continental jurisdictions, IALS sources are mainly commercial publications rather than official ones.

Our collection includes copies of the Italian constitution both in Italian and English.  

An online resource for material relating to foreign constitutions, started in 2010, is World Constitutions Illustrated. This is a contemporary and historical collection of documents, which is available as part of the IALS subscription to HeinOnline. It is available to all users on site at IALS. Offsite access is limited to staff and students of IALS, SAS and University of London. It includes consolidated and original texts of the Constitution for different periods in time. It also provides full text links to a range of historical commentaries and articles about the Italian Constitution, selected by the editors.

The constitution can also be found in both English and Italian on the website of the Chamber of Deputies.

For the main codes, we have a one-volume compilation:

• I quattro codici e le leggi complementari [i.e. "The four codes and complementary laws"] Giuffrè, 2006 (previous edition 2003)

Reference may also be made to the one-volume commentaries on each code described below under Treatises.

The Code of Navigation is represented by

• Tullio, L. Codice della Navigazione. Giuffre, 2007.

The Civil Code is represented by:

• Beltramo, S. The Italian Civil Code and complementary legislation . West, 2012
• Cendon, P. Codice civile annotato con la giurisprudenza e leggi complementari.  De Agostini professionale , 2004. 2 vols.
• Codice civile. Societa Editrice del Foro Italiano, 2010.
• Di Majo, A. Codice civile: con la costituzione, i trattati U.E. e le principali norme complemetari. Giuffre, 2021.

The text of the Italian Civil Code (Il Codice Civile Italiano) can be found in Italian on the website of the Cardozo Institute of Comparative Law at the University of Trento

The Code of Civil Procedure is represented by:

• Fazzalari, E. Codice di procedura civile e norme complementari. Giuffre, 2020.
• Grossi, S. Commentary on the Italian code of civil procedure. OUP, 2010. (Includes English translation of this code)

The Criminal Code is represented by:

• Dolcini, E (and others). Codice penale e norme complementari. Giuffre, 2020.

The Code of Criminal Procedure is represented by:

• Conso, G. Commentario breve al Codice di procedura penale. CEDAM, 2020.
• Gialuz, M. (and others). The Italian code of criminal procedure: critical essays and English translation. Wolters Kluwer, 2017.
• Ubertis, G (ed) Codice di procedura penale: coordinato con le norme complementari. Giuffre, 2012.

Sessional legislation is officially published in the Gazzetta ufficiale della Repubblica italiana, published since the foundation of the State in 1861. IALS has the commercially published series Lex, from 1915 until 2016 when it ceased publication. This contains both national and regional legislation. The IALS set is complete except for the years 1940-1942. Shelved with it is an index of legislation in force, both national and regional.

The Normattiva website can be used to search legislation published in the Official Gazette from 1861 onwards. The Constitution, codes and regional legislation are also given.

The full-text of laws of the current legislature can be found on the Parlamento Italiano web site.

Citation style

cod. proc. civ., art. 660 comma, 5

l.reg. 7 agosto 1953 n.47

l. 7 agosto 1990 no.250

Finding legislation

For legislation since 1987 try the digest Giustizia civile : repertorio generale annuale di legislazione, bibliografia, giurisprudenza. Published annually (IALS has up to 2012), the main work is arranged alphabetically by subject. Indexes at the back allow searching by the date and number of the law. This digest can also be used to check whether any changes have been made to any particular piece of legislation in any given year since 1987.

Alternatively if you know the date you can try the indexes in the annual volumes of Lex or, if you know the subject, try the index of legislation in force, both national and regional, shelved with Lex under the title La legislazione vigente 1981. This series can also be used to locate laws pre-1987 whose date is known.

The two most widely used general series of reports are

• Foro italiano 1876- (IALS 1915-)

• Giurisprudenza Italiana 1848- (IALS 1910- ) except 1943-7

Specialized reports include

• Foro amministrativo 1925- (IALS 1956-2001) which from 2002 becomes

• Il Foro amministrativo: T.A.R. and

• Il Foro amministrativo: C.d.S (incorporated from 2013)

• Giurisprudenza commerciale (IALS 1989- )

• Giurisprudenza costituzionale 1956- (IALS 1965-2013)

• Giustizia civile 1951- 2013 (IALS complete)

• Raccolta ufficiale delle sentenze e ordinanze della Corte Costituzionale 1956- 2012 (IALS complete)

• Responsabilita civile e previdenza (IALS 1965- ) - a journal containing articles and legislation as well as court reports.

• Sentenze e ordinanze della Corte Costituzionale 1962-1972 (IALS lacks only vol.1)

Decisions of the Constitutional Court (Decisioni della Corte costituzionale) can be accessed in Italian via Consulta Online

There are two categories of publication which may be described as "digests". Both the Foro italiano and Giurisprudenza italiana publish a companion series called a "massimario", usually published monthly and cumulated annually. These contain the "massime" or legal principles underlying the civil and criminal decisions of the Supreme Court (Corte de Cassazione). A special department of the Court is charged with extracting these "maxims", which to an English reader look rather like headnotes or entries in a case digest.

The Institute has only the Massimario della Giurisprudenza italiana on subscription (IALS incomplete holdings 1931-1980 then 1981-2007)

Slightly wider in scope are publications with the title Repertorio, published annually. These reproduce not only massime from a large range of reports and periodicals, but also references to legislation, books and articles published during the year. Arrangement is alphabetical by subject.

• Foro italiano: repertorio generale annuale di giurisprudenza, bibliografia e legislazione (IALS 1932-34 and 1950-57 only)

• Repertorio generale annuale di legislazione, bibliografia, giurisprudenza . Giuffrè, 1955- . Published in conjunction with Giustizia civile (IALS 1987- 2012)

• Repertorio delle decisioni della Corte costituzionale (IALS 1956- 2001)

• Repertorio generale annuale della Giurisprudenza italiana (IALS 1931-41)

You should be able to find an Italian case if you have any one or more of the following pieces of information:

• party names
• date case was heard
• court where case was heard
• subject

Citation style

Cass.civ.sez III, 27 aprile 1998 n.4285

Foro it . 1999, 1289

Finding cases

The main index is the digest Giustizia civile : repertorio generale annuale di legislazione, bibliografia, giurisprudenza [IALS 1987- 2012]. There are indexes at the end of each year allowing entry by party name, court name or date.

For cases pre-1987 for which you have the date you could try the annual indexes to the volumes of Foro italiano or Giurisprudenza Italiana (or its companion series Massimario della Giurisprudenza Italiana ) which allow searching by subject, date, party names or type of law (eg code, national, regional legislation). Foro italiano, which holds opinions from the Constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative courts, is available on JSTOR from 1876 to 2014.

Two publications may be placed in this category: the Digesto Italiano, which is not held by IALS, and the Enciclopedia del Diritto, which we do have.

The Enciclopedia del diritto is published by Guiffre in around 46 volumes since 1958 (library has up to 1993).

There are several works on a grand scale in Italian legal literature, of which the Institute has a few. These are:

• Bianca, M. Diritto Civile. 1990- Giuffre. 6 volumes some in 2nd editions 2000-

• Cendon, P. Commentario al Codice civile edited by "docenti e magistrati" (teachers and judges) published by UTET in 1991, and updated in 2009. 6 books in 9 volumes plus an index.

• Galgano, F. Diritto civile e commerciale . Cedam, 2004. 4 volumes in 6.

• Manzini, V. Trattato di diritto penale italiano 5th ed. UTET, 1981- 9 vols

• Messineo, F. Manuale di diritto civile e commerciale 1957-1972. 7 vols. Giuffrè.

• Pescatore, G. and Ruperto, C. Le leggi complementari al codice civile. 6th ed. Giuffre, 2007. 2 vols.

• Vassalli, F. Trattato di diritto civile italiano. 14 vols in 26 (projected as 15 vols in over 50). UTET

Our main work on company law is really an annotated collection of statutes and cases:

• Alessi, G. et al. Le società. Giuffrè, 1976. 4 vols in 5, with supplements 1977-78 and 1978-80.

We have a collection of the Manuali giuridici : "manuals" or one-volume textbooks published by Giuffrè:

• Antolisei, F. Manuale di diritto penale. Parte speciale, 2016

• Landi, G. Manuale di diritto amministrativo 13th ed., 2002

• Lugo, A. Manuale di diritto processuale civile 16th ed., 2006.

• Pajardi, P. Manuale di diritto fallimentare 6th ed., 2002

• Grosso, C.F. Manuale di diritto penale: parte generale, 2013.

• Tonini, P. Manuale di procedura penale, 2020.

• Torrente, A. and Schlesinger, P. Manuale di diritto privato,2013.

A series of useful one-volume "short commentaries" on the major codes are published by CEDAM under the collective title Breviaria Iuris . The Institute has the following volumes:

• Alpa, G. and Zatti, P. Commentario breve al Codice civile: leggi complementari . 4th ed. 2006.

• Carpi, F. and others Commentario breve al Codice di procedura civile, 2018.

• Cian, G. Commentario breve al Codice civile: complemento giurisprudenziale. 2011.

• Cian, G. and Trabucchi, A. Commentario breve al Codice civile, 2020.

•          Forti, G. (and others), Commentario breve al Codice penale, 2017.

• Crespi, A. Commentario breve al Codice penale: complemento giurisprudenziale. 12th ed. 2011.

• Conso, G. and Grevi, V. Commentario breve al Codice di procedura penale. 2020.

•          Luca-Tamajo, R. Commentario breve alle leggi sul lavoro, 2013.

• Maffei, A.A. Commentario breve alla legge fallimentare, 2013.

• Marchetti, P. and Ubertazzi, C.L. Commentario breve alla legislazione sulla proprita industriale e intellettuale . 1987.

• Marchetti, P. and Ubertazzi, C.L. Commentario breve al diritto della concorrenza. 1997.

Recent acquisitions include:

• Albanesi, E.  Teoria e tecnica legislativa nel sistema costituzionale. Editoriale scientifica, 2019

• Gabrielli, E. L'automonia privata: dal contratto alla crisi d'impresa. CEDAM, 2020

• Gabrielli, E. El contrato del tipo contractual a la operacion economica. Ediciones Olejnic, 2020
• Galgano, F. Diritto privato. CEDAM, 2019
• Scoca, F.G. (ed). Giustizia amministrativa. Giappichelli, 2020
• Sena, G and Giudici, S. Codice della proprieta industriale e intellettuale. Giuffre, 2019

Some recent English language books include:

• Cerini, D. Insurance law in Italy. Kluwer, 2019
• Comande, G. Medical law in Italy. Wolters Kluer, 2020
• Di Amato, A. Criminal law in Italy. Wolters Kluwer, 2020
• Onida, V. Constitutional law in Italy. Kluwer Law International, 2019
• Treu, T. Labour law in Italy. Kluwer Law International, 2020
• Toffoletto, A. Competition law in Italy. Kluwer Law International, 2019
• Ziccardi, G. Cyber law in Italy. Kluwer Law International, 2020

Titles on current subscription are:

• Il diritto di autore 1930- (IALS 1959- 2019 )

• Diritto e giurisprudenza: rassegna di dottrina e di giurisprudenza civile della Corte di Napoli e delle Corti Meridionali 1885- (IALS 1960-2011)

• Il diritto marittimo 1899- (IALS 1959- )

• Jus: rivista di scienze giuridiche 1950- (IALS complete)

• Quaderni costituzionali (IALS 1999- )

• Rivista del diritto commerciale e del diritto generale delle obbligazioni 1903- (IALS 1960- )

• Rivista delle società 1956- 2017 (IALS complete)

• Rivista di diritto agrario 1922- (IALS 1975-2013 )

• Rivista di diritto civile 1955- 

• Rivista italiana di diritto e procedura penale 1958- (incomplete)

• Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile 1947- (IALS 1953- )

• Rivista trimestrale di diritto pubblico 1951- (IALS 1960- incomplete)

Together with the major law report series, these are all indexed in the Index to foreign legal periodicals. Italian titles in international and European law are excluded from this list.

The Institute holds an annual index to Italian legal literature from 1865 up to 1990 which includes not only periodical articles but also books published during the year: Dizionario bibliografico delle reviste giuridiche italiane edited by V. Napoletano. Giuffre, 1865-1961 in two volumes, then annual from 1962 to 1990.

The DoGi database of the Istituto per la Documentazione Giurdica (Institute for Legal Documentation) contains abstracts in Italian of articles published in around 350 Italian legal journals since 1970. A list of Italian libraries of legal interest with online information and catalogues can be found on the same site

The Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico is a government office merging all Italian public library catalogues into a single OPAC. The catalogue is reached via the National Library Service website.  Several of the major Italian legal publishers have their catalogues available on the internet including Giuffre, Cedam, Utet and Zanichelli.

IALS holds the following Italian legal dictionaries:

• De Franchis, F. Dizionario giuridico: law dictionary. 2 volumes, one English to Italian (published in 1984) and the other Italian to English (published 1996)

• Mastellone, L. Legal and commercial dictionary: English-Italian. Butterworth, 1980.

• Galgano, F. Dizionario enciclopedico del diritto. Cedam, 1996. 2 vols.

For further abbreviations see Sprudzs, A. Italian abbreviations and symbols: law and related subjects (1969)

Useful starting points to sources of Italian legal information include:

Salvatore D'Elia, E and Ragona, M. Italy in Winterton, J and Moys, E (eds). Information sources in law (2nd ed). Bowker Saur, 1997.

Guide to Italian legal research and resources on the web, by Elio Fameli and Fiorenza Socci, was published in June 2006, and updated in November 2021 by Elio Fameli  and Francesco Fameli on the Globalex website.

The site of the Instituto di Teoria e Tecniche dell' Informazione Giuridica (Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques) outlines the databases which it publishes, and includes some useful guides in Italian.

The Italy section of WorldLII, the law index and search service maintained by the Australasian Legal Information Institute, allows the browsing and searching of selected sites containing Italian primary legal materials.

The Eagle-i Internet Portal for Law, a guide to good quality law resources on the internet, includes over twenty items on Italy.

The Torrossa Digital Library has Italian ebooks and can be accessed via the IALS website and catalogue.