Lo stran(ier)o imprenditore. Per una lettura interculturale dell’art. 2082 del codice civile italiano

Art. 2082 of the Italian Civil Code defines the “entrepreneur” as a person who carries out an economic activity organized for the purpose of producing or exchanging goods or services professionally. In so doing, the Civil Code describes a functional role, but leaves the “living” person apart. The Italian legislator seems to be disinterested in the anthropological characteristics of the person, along with her/his real baggage of experiences, which include not only legal-professional skills, but also praxeological schemes, linguistic and communicative resources, ethical-religious values, family relations, and economic, social, and cultural connections. More recently, the anthropological-economic literature has attested to how cultural differences can actually influence the characteristics and choices of entrepreneurship. This paper aims to explore the “silent” parts of entrepreneurial agency. Taking the norm of Art. 2082 of the Italian Civil Code as a starting point, the purpose of this exploration is to ask whether the cultural factors of economic behavior can be considered legally relevant, and therefore open to intercultural legal interpretation.