Property Rights vs. Hunting Rights in Italy

To:  all the Honourable Members of the Italian Parliament

Article 842 of the Italian Civil Code states that every hunter is allowed to enter anybody’s property – unless completely and properly fenced – for hunting and no land owner can legally keep hunters out of his own property.

Such provision was introduced during the Fascist regime, with the purpose of familiarizing Italians with the use of guns.

Contrary to what happens in most other countries, where hunting right is strictly correlated to land property, the Italian way to “popular hunting” has this unique legislation, where hunting rights prevail on property rights.

The procedure to keep hunters out of a property is always costly (surrounding it with a continuous fence at least 120 cm tall or a permanent river at least 3 mtrs wide and 1.5 mtrs deep) as well as paper intensive, and local authorities are free to accept requests or not.

As a result, if someone enters your own property for a stroll, you can kick him out. If a hunter does the same and is carrying a loaded gun, you cannot!

The undersigned firmly believe that such legislation is both a material threat to citizens’ safety and a blatant violation of individual property rights and therefore ask the Honourable Members of the Italian Parliament to do their best in order to obtain complete abrogation of Article 842 of the Italian Civil Code.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Property Rights vs. Hunting Rights in Italy Petition to all the Honourable Members of the Italian Parliament was created by and written by Francesco Faina (francesco.faina@fastwebnet.it).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.