Useful illegality in Italian administrative law

The aim of this article is twofold: first, to examine the concept of useful illegality within the context of Italian administrative law; second, to demonstrate that within this context the concept of useful illegality can be understood more broadly than in sociological literature, since in a number of instances it does not stem from the internal dynamics of public organisations, but rather results from specific legislative choices. To this end, it demonstrates that many cases of useful illegality occur with in a grey area, a potential conflict arises between a legal rationale on the one hand and what could be described as managerial rationale on the other. Based on the results of a limited scope field survey, attention is then turned to useful illegality in the practice of Italian public administration. Subsequently, after having introduced the concept of legislative tolerance for certain breaches of the law, the more specific concept of useful illegality of legislative origin is identified. The latter is illustrated by referring to recent legislative provisions that temporarily limited the liability of civil servants for pecuniary damage to the public administration in order to facilitate the efficient implementation of public policies. At this point, the differences between forms of useful illegality that occur within public organisations and those of legislative origin are outlined and it is argued that, from the point of view of legal scholarship, the similarities between them seem to be such as to justify a unitary and thus broader notion of useful illegality.