The new Patrimonio Rilancio and the Italian approach to Sovereign Wealth Funds

The article focuses on the link between sovereign immunity and state-owned corporations (SWFs specifically) from the perspective of civil law judiciaries, particularly the Italian one. A first analysis sheds light on a new Italian fund, called Patrimonio Rilancio, the establishment of which has been authorised in 2020 within the framework of the economic measures adopted by the Italian government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is doubtful whether this fund can be qualified as a SWF. The main obstacle for it to fit into SWFs’ definitions is the nature of its portfolio, since the fund’s establishing law stipulates that it is entitled to invest in Italian companies only. In order to carry out this analysis, a panorama of the main current definitions of SWFs is also drafted. A second part of the contribution focuses more deeply on the civil law perspective on state immunity (both from jurisdiction and attachment), analysing whether the latter can be applied to SWFs. In particular, the existing legal frameworks of sovereign immunity in France, Germany and Italy are addressed, identifying civil law judiciaries’ common features when dealing with the relationship between SWFs and immunity.