Abstract

The recent introduction of a special legislation about Social Enterprises in Italy raises the question of relationships to be established between the new specific regulation and the general rules governing enterprises and business in Italian civil code. The article is skeptical about the possibility of giving the new rules a global systematic relevance and of justifying an already reached new balance between traditional plutocratic values and social issues. New values for enterprises should be generated by the relevance given to social issues by the market in which the enterprise operates, with the consequence that a global innovative market regulation is correspondently required.