USI AZIENDALI. UN'ANALISI FILOSOFICO-GIURIDICA.

The present PhD thesis is about a peculiar legal category: company customs [usi aziendali]. Courts use this category despite the fact that the term ‘company custom’ does not appear in official legal sources. On the bases of the legal concept “company custom”, judges and lawyers affirm that a norm comes into being as a result of a practice being followed by the employer in a company over a long period of time (that gives employees the impression that the employer intends to continue with the practice in the future). In this cases benefits provided by the employer, who is not already bound on the basis of another legal source, are considered by the courts as dues by the employer on the basis of a company custom. In my thesis I point out that the term ‘company custom’ hides different concepts that presuppose different theories and different ideologies.