UNA NUOVA FISIONOMIA GIURIDICA PER I GESTORI DEI PORTI ITALIANI. O FORSE DUE?SULLA DISTANZA DI APPROCCIO TRA IL D.LGS. N. 169 DEL 2016 E IL REGOLAMENTO (UE) N. 2017/352

This paper describes how the Italian courts and scholars interpreted the legal transformations occurred to the seaports' organization (and notably to the port Authorities) since the law 84/1994. The author underlines that the prevailing opinion - that has qualified the Italian port Authorities as non-economic public bodies, exerting regulatory functions - clashes with the framing of the member States' ports managing bodies as undertakings, that the European institutions expressed on several occasions. This bifurcation of positions (also testified by the Italian and European legislation's last season) is not justified from the special aspects that the Italian Autorità di sistema portuale show in comparison to the prototype of port Authority that EU law conceives: in conclusion, the paper suggests framing the new Italian ports' managing bodies as economic entities, whose functions are essentially entrepreneurial.