Agricultural Goods and Family Business: Legal and Economic Dynamics in the Formation of the Italian Civil Law Model in the First Half of the 20th Century

Ciccolo, Francesco (2026) Agricultural Goods and Family Business: Legal and Economic Dynamics in the Formation of the Italian Civil Law Model in the First Half of the 20th Century. In: Instruments for Preserving the Unity of Family Business and Agricultural Assets: Perspectives of Legal History. Legal Heritage . Central European Academic Publishing, Budapest, Miskolc, pp. 119-140. ISBN 978-615-7027-30-5

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Abstract

This chapter traces how wartime emergency legislation and fascist ruralism reconfigured Italian private law by elevating the farming family from a sociological fact to a juridically meaningful subject and by redefining ownership for the purpose of production. Centring on Francesco Ferrara and Filippo Vassalli, it shows how World War I measures reshaped agrarian contracts, normalised state intervention, and exposed the gap between the comunione tacita familiare and codified categories. It then reconstructs the 1930s debate (Enrico Finzi versus Salvatore Pugliatti), demonstrating methodological divergence (assetbased vs. subjective-right approaches) yet convergence on the social function and limits of property within an ideological climate of fascist “ruralism”. A close reading of the travaux préparatoires and enacted provisions reveals that the 1942 Civil Code consolidated a new paradigm (arts. 832, 834, 838, and 846–851), introducing productive-aim expropriation and minimum cultivation units while relegating family enterprise to custom (art. 2140). The conclusion explains why full juridical recognition of the family business was deferred until the 1975 reform (art. 230-bis) and reflects on the lasting implications for agrarian law and governance.

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