Path Dependence and Paradox in Harmonizing Out-of-court Procedures across Europe. The Evidence from Italy

This paper focuses on the impact that the ‘new approach to business failure’ has had on Italianout-of-court procedures. It demonstrates that in 2005 Italian law started to embrace therescue culture of out-of-court procedures by means of a series of reforms; initially, this movementfacilitated the incorporation of the ‘new approach to business failure’, but – and this isthe paradox – the more law makers and courts remove the old paradigms and introduce newones, which in principle could make the procedures smoother, cheaper and more efficient, themore the law in the book and the law in action appear to be overloaded with additionalprerequisites which make the procedures cumbersome, costly and inefficient.