FARM & IP Law

The research objective is to investigate the regulation of the agricultural enterprise under multiple perspectives, encompassing various legal areas: civil, labour, business, bankruptcy, tax and criminal. The agricultural enterprise in fact is facing a number of challenges related to sustainability and technological development:

a) establishing and regulating modern organisational models, such as innovative start-ups;

b) setting up business contracts that may determine the success on the market of agricultural enterprise;

c) inclusion of contract clauses of sustainability in the food chain and potential “green” certification of those contracts according to sustainability clauses;

d) issues related to opportunities and risks of protection of intellectual property, with a specific focus on innovation;

e) farm management also in reference to business crisis;

f) regulation of food fraud;

g) challenges related to the multiplication and overlapping of punitive measures in the agri-food sector and the liability related to the topic of food security, in terms of food-related offences and “new” environmental crimes;

h) establishing the features of an agri-food business with regards to the integration of the “labour factor”, often accomplished through subcontracting chains that are not implemented in a regular manner, and that actually lower the level of protection and guarantees of the involved workers;

i) creation of networks of businesses, co-employment and co-hiring in agriculture;

l) issues related to unemployment and retraining of agricultural workers;

m) redevelopment of rural areas to revitalise proximity agriculture as a link in the chain of sustainability.

Coordinator: Luca Ghidoni