The Italian legal order and the European Union: an evolving relationship

The task of this article is a twofold one: descriptive and interpretative. The first intent is to describe the essential facts concerning the relationship between the Italian legal order and that of the EEC, now the EU. The latter has passed its seventy years, which have witnessed development, change and evolution that will be briefly charted in the subsequent paragraphs. This part seeks to lay the groundwork for later discussion; that is, interpretation. It can be helpful to say at the outset – for the sake of clarity – that there are contending theories and the literature is still rapidly evolving. The objective within this part is to render accessible to a wider public the debate within Italian scholarship.