Abstract
The article summarizes the state of the art of Italian law of public contracts and focuses on the expansion of public contractual activity. The analysis shows how the use of private law has to reconcile with the need to ensure that public contractual activity is effectively oriented towards the public good. Therefore, also according to European law, public procurement awarding procedures are strictly regulated in order to ensure equality among tenderers as well as high quality in goods and services and, in general, that public contractual activity is subject to a mixture administrative and private law.