Italy

• The Constitution of 1948, the highest law
• The Civil Code (1942), the Penal Code and other codes and statutes
• European Union law, which takes priority in its area
• Court decisions (giurisprudenza), which are very important in practice, and scholarly writing

• The Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione) at the top of the ordinary courts
• The Constitutional Court, which reviews laws, and the Council of State for administrative cases
• Courts of appeal and first-instance courts, with justices of the peace for small matters

A five-year law degree, a period of practical training, and a state examination, followed by registration with a local bar council.

• Judges and public prosecutors share a common judicial career (the magistratura) and can move between the two roles.
• The Civil Code includes commercial and company law, so there is no separate Commercial Code.
• The Constitutional Court decides on questions referred to it by ordinary judges, not just direct challenges.
• Italian law strongly influenced other civil-law systems through its Roman-law scholarship.

Spain, France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Italy as: Civil law. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• Italian Constitutional Court
• Court of Cassation of Italy

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.