The Constitutionalisation of Private Law in Italian and Maltese Law of Obligations: a Bridge Between Legal Traditions?

The research aims to analyze the ongoing process of constitutionalisation of Private law in several European countries, whose potential for expansion may lead to a progressive convergence of the Civil and Common law traditions, possibly leading to the constitutionalisation of private law in any legal system and the generation, aside from Common and Civil law systems, of a \"third family\" with autonomous characters. The thesis is developed in five chapters, dealing with various regulatory and systematic aspects: 1) Fundamental rights - structure of the system - sources of the law - comparing different techniques for applying constitutional rules in the relationships between private citizens. 2) The evolution of contract and tort law in Italy in relation to French, German and other European legal systems. This chapter looks at how (a) contract law evolved from the 19th century dogmatic approach to the modern constitutionalization of private autonomy (Italian system, European system) and