La tutela del panorama in ambito europeo

In October 2000, the Council of Europe adopted the European Landscape Convention, thereby introducing the first international regulatory instrument expressly dedicated to the legal recognition and protection of landscape. Notwithstanding its predominantly programmatic character - manifested primarily in the undertaking by the Contracting States to cooperate, across multiple policy domains, in the development and implementation of measures aimed at safeguarding landscape attributes - the Convention nonetheless acquires appreciable juridical significance for individuals. This is particularly evident in its express af irmation that “the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere,” a formulation that transcends mere policy aspiration and operates as a normatively relevant interpretive criterion. Indeed, this clause functions as a consequential hermeneutical parameter in the historical-evolutionary construction of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to respect for private life. As a provision endowed with immediate binding force, Article 8 requires consistent application within the domestic legal orders of all Contracting States, including that of Italy. It follows that the correlative protection of the landscape - inasmuch as it implicates the material and immaterial dimensions of private life – must beensured throughout the entirety of civil proceedings, encompassing, inter alia, applications for urgent measures pursuant to Article 700 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure.