Ricerc@Sapienza

The coming into being of the Conte government was the first in Italy to make use of the government-contract scheme; i.e., stating in writing the political objectives to be pursued by members of the executive power. The present paper deals with the proper allocation of such a practice within the framework of the Italian constitutional order. The paper starts with a survey of the theories of government contracts and ends with some considerations on their binding nature on members of parliament and of the cabinet. It focuses on the relationship between such contracts and freedom of the mandate, also analyzing the links between such agreements and the institute of parliamentary confidence. The paper concludes by assessing whether such an agreement can be considered a real contract or rather is void under ius civile.