Summary — In the first part of the article is briefly analysed what has been the course followed by the Italian doctrine in the last years about the juridical themes regarding the protection of the environment, with particular reference to two books of recent publication. Are then examined the principal contributions following the above-mentioned books, which confirm, all of them, the orientations already emerging from the examination of the same: great attention to the themes of the distribution of competences between State and regions, of the difficulties of the legislative instrument to solve by itself the complex situations brought about by the needs o f environment protection, of the relation with the Community law, of the citizens participation.

Short notes of comparison with the French and German situations are following, characterized by a discussion focalized both on subjects emerging as central in the Italian panorama and relative to the configuration, above all in Germany, of a genuine and proper "right to the environment". From the analysis of the various national realities, appears clearly the widespread demand for an environment policy able to work out an effective activity of planning that made use not only of coercive measures but also and above all of mutual consent and contractual forms able to aggregate a "steady consent", inevitable condition of effectiveness of rules and efficacy of actions.