The role of customary law and the new Lex Mercatoria in Countries with Civil Law Tradition: the Italian case

Recent phenomena linked to changes in the form of the State and to economic "globalization" encourage forms of "self-regulation" and erode the monopoly of the State on the production of laws, destabilizing even the hierarchy of sources that came to the fore with the liberal State. The aim of this contribution is to verify, with reference to the Italian Constitutional order, whether this statement is underpinned by positive law. After briefly examining the effects of globalization on the production of a usage and customs-based "transnational" law, attention will be focused on the ways in which the latter can make its way into the Italian order for the role acknowledged to usage and practices and for the opening of the Italian order to international law and European law. Some of the issues that may arise with regard to the rule of law, as it is understood in civil law systems, will be also delineated.