Accessibilità agli atti e tutela della riservatezza: il caso degli archivi storici

Since the introduction of the l. n. 241 del 1990, in our law system there has been a gradual success in the application of the transparency principle in Public Administration. As a result, there has been an increase in the consultation opportunities for documents stored in historical archives. This achievement is also due to the fact that they have been recognised, by the 2004/2008 Urbani code, as a cultural heritage, with the need for an easier access. The aim of the essay is the review of the regulation in public, private and ecclesiastic archive access. The main issue in this new approach is related to privacy matters. As a matter of fact, this new access policy has been limited and regulated by both the Urbani Code and the Privacy Legislation (d. lgs. 30 june 2003 n. 196). Similar privacy issues are also related to the consumption for research purpose in historical, social and demographical fields. In this case the relevant legislation refers to the Codice di deontologia e di buona condotta of 2001, in relation to the handling of personal records for historical usage. Regarding the conflict between different legislations, our goal is a contribution in the achievement of a wide but still privacy-friendly access.