Administrative Inter-Legality. A Hypothesis Edoardo Chiti  Abstract The article discusses the possible relevance of inter-legality in the process of implementation of public policies. It opens by observing that inter-legality emerges, both as a situation and as a prescriptive criterion, not only in the context of judicial disputes, where it finds a highly fertile ground, but also in the policy cycle. It then focusses on the implementing phase of the policy cycle, with a view to examining the manifestations of inter-legality as a situation and the ways in which it may operate as a prescriptive criterion. It is argued that inter-legal situations are, in the implementing phase of the regulatory process, diverse and changing, in constant movement between the three macro-poles of joint responsibility, co-ordination of responsibilities and conflict of responsibilities. It is also suggested, as a matter of hypothesis, that inter-legality might operate as a meta-criterion allowing administrations to recognize and manage the complexity of inter-legality situations . I. Inter-Legality in the Executive Phase of the Regulatory Process Inter-legality can be reconstructed and critically discussed in the first place as a situation emerging in a specific case brought before a court, as well as a criterion to reach a decision on that case. While courts are used to approach the issue from their own legal order – be it a State, a supranational order such as the European Union (EU) or an international or global regime – the principles and rules potentially relevant for the solution of judicial disputes brought before them often stem from a much wider and composite mélange of sources. Since legal orders inevitably overlap and regulate beyond their own borders, a multiplicity of rules laid down by sources of different legal systems may be in principle and in practice applicable to a certain case and ought to be taken into consideration both by the parties and by the court. Such ‘ composite law’ , made up of norms laid down by diverse but functionally overlapping and inter- connected orders/regimes, forms the legal material bringing about inter-legality as a concrete legal situation. In this perspective, inter-legality is a legal occurrence manifesting itself in the context of judicial litigation. Yet, it is also the methodological criterion by which a decision on the case should be made. It recommends – or, better, prescribes – not to resort to purely formal doctrines, such as those governing the relationships between sources of different legal  Full Professor of Administrative Law, University of Tuscia.