Illegal building in Italy: Too complex a problem for national land policy?

Abstract This paper deals with the challenging issue of illegal building in Italy with a view to clearing up the picture on this subject matter. This phenomenon is scarcely treated from an analytical/scientific point of view, especially in international literature. However, it is very present in the social and journalistic debate. Our research highlights the objective lack of data needed to gauge this offence, which is less endemic than is believed. Furthermore, it proves that existing data are insufficient to produce results, which often range between reality and prejudice, depicting some areas of the country in an extremely negative way. The first part of this paper describes the extreme complexity in acquiring “real” data and the total nation-wide lack of technical-administrative structures and methods capable of producing acceptably reliable information. In the second part, an emblematic case study is presented and its history traced back. We show that the multiform phenomena associated with illegal building create an enormous and rhetorical stratification of actions that ultimately do not lead to any appreciable result. This underscores the powerlessness of the administrative, regulatory and technical apparatus towards this particular infringement of territorial law.