Abstract

The objective of the present paper is to illustrate the position of the Italian administrative jurisprudence, which as of late has addressed, through a judgement of the Plenary Session of the Italian Consiglio di Stato, the matter of public contracts assigned directly to companies controlled, in whole or in part, by the same contracting public authority. The judgement is fitted into the age-old jurisprudence debate that has arisen both within the European Community and the member States, on the in-house providing mechanism and on direct assignments of contract and services, in favour of mixed public-private capital companies. A topic addressed at national level by two distinct and contrasting jurisprudential trends. Starting from the positions that have been taken all along by the Court of Justice - from the Teckal case to the Stadt Halle case - on "in-house" contracts, the commented judgement has finally aligned with Community jurisprudence establishing that direct assignments to mixed-capital companies do not fall within the legal framework applicable to in-house contracts. Said judgement has also drawn procedural rules to be adopted in case of assignment of services to mixedcapital companies.