Introduction

On July 20, 2004, the Italian Parliament approved definitively the law no. 215, “Norme in materia di risoluzione dei conflitti di interessi” (“Norms for the Resolution of Conflicts of Interest”). It is the first Italian law designed to discipline a public official who contributes to a decision that can affect his or her own patrimony (or the patrimony of his or her family, relatives, or firms controlled by him or her). After having defined the political actors who fall within the scope of the regulation (the law applies only to Cabinet members such as the Prime Minister, ministers, deputy ministers, junior ministers, and governmental officials chairing special commissions), the law identifies two broad areas of conflict of interest that it seeks to regulate. The first addresses the traditional abuse of one's public position for advancing one's own economic interests or the economic interests of one's family or friends. The second deals with a new type of conflict of interest, one that emerges when an owner of a media corporation ascends to a public role. It is this type of conflict of interest that has antagonized the Italian political scene since the beginning of the 1990s. In fact, the political ascendancy of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi has brought with it a dramatic challenge to the institutional equilibrium of Italian democracy.

Italy was legally unprepared to deal with the challenge that Berlusconi posed to the state's regulation of traditional conflicts of interest.