The relationship between agricultural law and environmental law in Italy

Abstract

In Italy, the traditional view of agriculture has been that it is the most immediate, authentic and natural expression of the environment. This occurred even though the study of the emergence of environmental issues and their integration in agricultural law has only recently appeared as a problem. Furthermore, the affirmation of environmental law in Italy is a recent fact. Even today, there is debate as to whether, instead of building a “law of the environment” as an independent discipline, we should instead identify, in the various sectors of law, common principles as source of inspiration for a “law for the environment.” Many books on agrarian law, published in the 1980s, deal with environmental issues only marginally, to define the borders of agrarian law strictu sensu. An important role in defining the boundaries and interactions between environmental law and agrarian law has been played by Italian journals of agrarian law, which starting from the beginning of the twentieth century opened to new subject matters, such as food, nutrition and environmental protection. This broadening of agricultural law towards environmental law had important repercussion on didactics, as proved by the inclusion in the sector of the scientific discipline of “agricultural law” of studies pertaining to the protection of the environment and to the commercialization of agricultural products.