De la responsabilidad civil a la seguridad social: el fundamento jurídico del seguro italiano contra los accidentes de trabajo y las enfermedades profesionales

The evolution from the liberal legal system based on the formal equality between of the contracting parties to the modern social state founded on the protection of the employee was accompanied by lively debate on the compatibility of the first forms of social security protection with the traditional code rules. The initial difficulty of understanding the true meaning of the new tools of social protection has led to their erroneous classifications in traditional civil categories. The protection of employee against accidents at work takes on significance from this point of view, representing the protection that has been urgently brought to the attention of European legislators since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The debate developed in Italy from the second half of the nineteenth century is of particular interest, distinguishing three phases during which were examined initially the solutions offered by subjective and objective liability and later the embryonic form of social security that has become important on the constitutional level.