ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on contractual networks among firms as compared to the traditional concept of linked contract and in light of recent Italian legislation on network contracts. It argues the centrality of both the effectiveness of business activity and party autonomy that expresses itself in selecting legal models, possibly enriching them with further elements of complexity, or also in choosing not to subject the network to law. The chapter evaluates the consequences on the techniques of interpretation and on the value parameters capable of justifying the legally relevant fact-network on a functional and teleological level and from an axiologically well-founded perspective. The network contract may also be bilateral, purely contractual, contractual but organisation-oriented, entailing exchange, cooperation or the carrying of business together. The interpretation of contractual networks and their classification – i.e. identification of the regulatory framework to be applied – should be done from an axiological, teleological and functional standpoint.
