The time is over for Italy's special jurisdction on water resources. A comparative perspective.

Having regard to water resources, even today Italy maintains a special court system along with ordinary civil and administrative courts. At the end of 2014, a bill has been proposed to the Italian Parliament in order to abolish it, on the assumption that its peculiar regulatory framework is contrary to the principles of economy and effectiveness. Thus, the present analysis focuses on the viability of the Italian judicial review regarding water resources. Firstly, it takes into consideration the main questions posed by the Italian regulatory regime in the light of those principles. On one hand, it is controversial how to correctly qualify such a peculiar system of courts. On the other, a conflict of judicial decisions together with a duplication of actions may arise in cases where powers vested in public authorities are involved. Secondly, it takes into account the experiences of similar legal systems, such as France and Spain, in order to better understand the sustainability of the Italian solution. Although all the considered legal systems entitle public authorities with an analogous range of powers regarding water resources, France and Spain opt for a full jurisdiction of administrative courts. Eventually, the present analysis reckons that the Italian solution is in contrast with the principle of legal certainty as well as the aforementioned principles.