Il testo è la rielaborazione, con l’aggiunta delle note, della relazione tenuta a Roma il 3 maggio 2013 nel Convegno organizzato dalla Accademia dei Lincei dal titolo La riforma del diritto del lavoro. Il saggio sarà pubblicato negli Atti del Convegno e sulla Rivista Giuridica del Lavoro e della Previdenza Sociale.

The essay firstly analyzes the relationship between Law and Economics and underlines that Labour Law has now been colonised by Labour Economics and its contents are considered only in terms of efficiency and an evaluation of costs and benefits. The specific reasons for the juridical regulation – and in particular the protection of values which are not economic (such as equity, solidarity and equality) – are completely subordinate to the (presumed) needs of the economy. Moreover, the economic theories used to justify the deregulation of the discipline for dismissals are contradicted by the empirical data, in a context in which the economy “betrays itself”, and forget that it is a science which is not only theoretical but also experimental.  
In the second part the essay examines the new discipline for dismissals introduced by law 92/2012 in light of the jurisprudence. The article examines all the most serious matters (disciplinary and economic dismissals, formal and procedural requisites, public sector employment). The essay points out how the decisions made so far have rejected the interpretations of the most radical doctrine and the prevailing of the “intermediate” interpretative line, according to which the reform has made dismissals easier, but has not transformed the reinstatement of the worker in a residual hypothesis as an alternative to compensation for damages. In any case the alternative between reinstatement and compensation, which is the principal aspect of the reform, is still an open problem and the jurisprudence has yet to adopt an unequivocal stance in the matter.