Abstract

The essay considers the different forms of labour exploitation that occur in agriculture in order to highlight the limits of a merely repressive solution such as the one offered by criminal law. By taking into account the issue of caporalato (hiring of workers by illegal intermediaries), the author points out that such complex phenomenon cannot be effectively countered at individual level by the traditional control/sanction system. Thus, the article encourages a reflection on the need for regulatory instruments that rather intervene to correct the distortions of the agricultural labour market and the contractual imbalances, especially the ones occurring within the agro-food supply chain.