Possidenti e "bracconieri" : leggi e caccia di frodo in Italia fra '800 e primo '900

The article reconstructs the regulatory framework on hunting from the preunification period to the decisive change made by the Mussolini's government. Thesis shows how hunting was an important element for communities, also highlightingatent conflict inherent in the power relations between landowners and "poachers", initially still regulated by preunification laws. In this sense, the investigation showes how in reality the single hunting law promulgated in 1923 was a refined instrument to allow the elites to maintain a firm control over society, particularly over rural populations. [Publisher's Text].