Abstract

This paper illustrates the laws and the other legal measures in the field of landscape protection, that have been enacted in the 150 years of Italian unity. The author focuses on the norms issued during the fascist period (and to a large extent still in force) and those enacted after the Second World War; a special attention is paid to article 9 of the Italian Constitution of 1948 that, for the first time (in the world), comprises landscape protection within the fundamental principles of the Italian legal order. Besides the legal history, the paper makes reference to the lack of effectiveness of the laws in this field and to the destruction of the landscape and of the country perpetrated especially in the last decades.