Sustainable Tourism Law

58 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW VI. ITALIAN TOURISM LAW Sources of Italian Tourism Law The sources of Italian Tourism Law are the Civil Code, the so called Tourism Code (D.Lgvo 23 May 2011, no. 79), the Consumer Code (D.Lgvo 6 September 2005, no. 206), and the 20 Regional Tourism Laws. In a way, as Italy is a Civil Law country, the first sources of Tourism Law should be found in the Civil Code. This is partially true. In the Civil Code we do not find articles or rules that expressly mention tourism. But we find rules related, directly or indirectly, with tourism activities. For example, the deposit made in a hotel (art. 1783), which is the responsibility of the hotel owner (art. 1784 / 1786) and hence the hotel contract. And, of course, the contract of carriage (road, rail and air) (art. 1678 / 1702) that, obviously, the tourist-traveller continuously uses 39 . The Italian Tourist Code of 2011 The so called Tourism Code (D.Lgvo 23 May 2011, no. 79) was prepared to try to elaborate general rules, in the framework of the jurisdiction left to State Law after the Constitutional Reform of 2001. Its theoretical and expected goals were “ to ensure a modern market regulation in line with European legislation, to promote the latest computer technology, to meet security needs and issues of environmental protection, to protect the rights and interests of consumers and professionals, and to provide incentives and support for small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism sector ” 40 . But the delicate equilibrium that the Italian Constitution designs between State and Regional Law determined the intervention of the Constitutional Court, that had stroked various articles of the Tourism Code 41 . Notwithstanding the pretentious name (Tourism Code), the Code does not cover those sectors that are, as we have seen, exclusively linked to State Law. The Tourism Code deals with Tourist enterprise (art. 4 /5); professions connected with tourism (art. 6 / 7); hotels (art. 8 / 17); travel agents (art. 18 / 21). 39. VV., Trasporti e turismo. Profili privatistici , Carla Vignali editor, Milano, Giuffrè, 2016. 40 So the Code is described in OECD (2014), “Italy”, in OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2014, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/tour-2014-24-en. 41 Italian Constitutional Court decision of April 5, 2012, n.80, in Giust. civ., 2012, I, 1388, also in Riv. it. dir. tur ., 6/2012, p. 29 e ss., with comments of L. Righi. The Constitutional Court stated that the Tourist Code infringed the Italian Constitution by overcoming – in several fields – the exclusive powers on tourism sector assigned to Regions.