Obblighi di bonifica e contaminazioni pregresse: la decisione dell’Adunanza Plenaria

The article regards the issue of environmental remediation of sites which were polluted before the Legislative Decree 22/1997 entered into force. Also known as Ronchi Decree, the above-mentioned legislation provided, for the first time, a set of rules in order to address the problem of ground pollution. However, the case of already contaminated sites was not taken into account and this led to different interpretations among courts and legal scholars. In the light of the recent ruling by the Council of State, the article analyses the hybrid nature of the environmental remediation and investigates the consequences of its retroactive applications, within the national and European framework. Above all, the threat to the need of certainty and foreseeability demanded by the supreme principle of legality.