Water and the Law. The Management of Water in the Statutory Legislation of Late Communal Italy (13th - 14th Centuries)

The study investigates water resource law in the statutory legislation codified by commune governments of cities and smaller municipalities in Northern and Central Italy from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries. It aims to shed light on the relationship between water management norms and the local environment and, in particular, how urban governments planned the use and distribution of water and the protection of inhabited areas from the danger of flooding. The paper proposes to test the hypothesis that the statutes of the Po Valley Italy reflect a different management from those in Central Italy due to the different availability of water in the two different areas of the peninsula