Gli incerti confini della normatività degli atti amministrativi: regolamenti, atti generali, soft-law e fast-law

This essay investigates the increasingly blurred boundaries of normativity in administrative acts, tracing the doctrinal and jurisprudential evolution of the distinction between regulations (regolamenti) and general administrative acts (atti generali). Moving beyond the classical formal-substantial criteria of generality and abstractness developed by Sandulli and Giannini, the analysis shows how the traditional system of sources has progressively destructured under the pressure of a "flight from the regulation" (fuga dal regolamento), giving rise to atypical instruments such as ministerial directives, ANAC guidelines, technical standards, and other expressions of soft law and fast law. The author argues that these flexible regulatory tools, justified by efficiency, technical expertise, and the need for rapid adaptation, generate a trade-off between legality and efficiency that weakens the principle of legality and the certainty of legal relations. Drawing on the teachings of Ledda and on the case law of the Consiglio di Stato, the work calls for a revaluation of formal categories and an "elogio della forma" as a democratic counterweight, emphasizing the central role of judicial review in safeguarding the rule of law where ordinary checks and balances on administrative normative power are weakened.