Il pungolo e il pantano. Quando il design contrattuale ostacola la dignità umana.

The modern vestment of the contractual will is not a conventional, but an institutional language. It is spoken – or rather, practiced – within ‘virtual rooms’ where the problem is not the lack of information, but an excessof it; and where semantic obscurity is not linked merely to the choice of words used to formulate this or that clause, this or that information. Today, linguistic risk is primarily a problem of contract design. As such, it can take on the connotations of a ‘nudge’ that influences, even manipulates, individual autonomy, or a ‘sludge’ that can prevent everyone – Italians and foreigners alike – from participating in social life in a dignified and equal manner. Therefore, adequate controls, including by the authorities, and effective remedies are necessary. A viable hermeneutical path is to look for them in the old structures of the (Italian) Civil Code, provided that one knows how to reinterpret it in light of the current issue of clarity in contractual matters.