Between Austrian and Italian law: The insurance industry in nineteenth-century northern Italy

Northern Italy as a Contact Zone between Austrian-Hungarian and Italian Law documents the results of an international research project that comprehensively examines for the first time the development of civil law in the territories acquired by Italy after the Third Italian War of Independence and after the First World War. In these territories, the previously applicable Austrian-Hungarian law simply continued to apply. After a few years, the applicable Italian law replaced it, but some special features are still valid today. Other regulations inspired the pending all-Italian law reforms. Beyond wars and disputes over self-determination and the protection of minorities, Northern Italy therefore appears to be a zone in which Austrian and Italian law have entered into a particularly close relationship with each other. This chapter examines the evolution of the insurance market, focusing on the legal issues that characterised insurance and insurance law in Italy between the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to the period when the New Provinces of Trent and Trieste were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy at the end of the First World War, which saw the Trieste insurance companies become Italian.