Italian Business and Banking Law

Italian Commercial (or Business) Law is largely based on the Italian Civil Code. It encompasses all the basic features of this area of Italian Law. The main one is subject, i.e. the entrepreneur, which can be a collective body, in which case it will be in the form of a "societa" which includes both partnerships and companies, or again as a collective body other than a societa, for instance a consorzio. There are also cooperative enterprises, which play a very relevant economic role in many regions of the country, which are also regarded as societa. There are many features of entrepreneurial activities, but only a select few may be discussed within the confines of this work. They are business ( azienda), unfair competition, antitrust rules and intellectual property. We will also provide a brief account of insolvency law, as found in the Italian Insolvency Act ( Legge fallimentare), which is about to undergo comprehensive and radical reform in the coming years. We will end the discussion with an overview of the banking system and its basic features, as this matter is largely covered by EU law mainly through its directives and regulations.