Sharing economy e diritto dell'innovazione: il caso della mobilità urbana

This article aims at analysing several legal and theoretical aspects related to different social and technological innovation phenomena falling under the conceptual umbrella of the so-called sharing economy. The result of the analysis offers regulators and public law scholars of innovation, in particular those with a local or urban dimension, a key to guide the interpretation of public policy and regulations that would allow innovation to grow and regulators to govern risks produced by it. In particular, after a general overview on the role and meaning of the sharing economy, this study focuses on the impact of new technologies and new platforms in the urban mobility sector. Particular attention is paid to the regulation of on demand mobility services, a sector subject to a dense regulatory texture laid out by legislators, independent authorities, national and EU case law. The analysis of this regulatory framework sheds light on a methodological principle, the urban legal experimentalism, which according to the research hypothesis developed in this study may become a guiding principle to interpret and govern disruptive social, digital, technological innovation phenomena public decision-makers will have to cope with in the future.