LA REGOLAZIONE PRO-CONCORRENZIALE DEL GOVERNO MONTI ALLA PROVA DELLA CORTE COSTITUZIONALE: UNA TRIPLICE CONVERGENZA?

Abstract

In response to the international financial crisis, in 2011 and 2012, at the request of international institutions such as the European Central Bank, the Monti Government issued some decree laws intended to liberalize markets and simplify economic regulations, introducing some international principles of better regulation. At the same time, these decrees introduced a strengthening of the Italian Competition Authority’s advocacy powers as well as the Transport Regulation Authority. It seemed as if the promotion of competition had returned to the forefront of our economic policy. These laws have several original elements. First of all, contrary to what has happened in recent years, liberalizations did not concern only some particular industrial sectors, but the Monti Government chose to issue pro-competitive rules concerning economic regulations as a whole. Secondly, incentives to encourage Regions, Provinces and Municipalities to adopt this kind of regulation were introduced. It has been claimed that these rules introduced a new interpretation of art. 41 of the Italian Constitution. Regions considered their own legislative power limited by these new rules and decided to submit them to the Constitutional Court. The aim of this work is to describe the most innovative aspects of these rules and, especially, to illustrate the Constitutional Court’s related judgments, which pronounced that almost all these rules were legitimate, even resorting to some elements of economic law.