The Italian legal system has a plurality of sources of production. These are arranged in a hierarchical scale, under which the rule of a lower source cannot conflict with the rule of an upper source (hierarchy of sources).

The Constitution of 1948 is the main source.[4] The Italian civil code is based on codified Roman law with elements of the Napoleonic civil code and of the German BGB. The civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865.[4] The penal code ("The Rocco Code") was also written under fascism (1930).

Both the civil code and the penal code have been modified in order to be in conformity with the current democratic constitution and with social changes.[4]