The Italian Civil Code has been characterised, ever since the original text dated 1865, and also in the legislative act issued in 1942, and still in force today, by its durability and resistance over time: first of all the paper analyses the reasons underlying this temporal permanence. In the same way, and also over the course of time, strong connections have been highlighted between the rules contained in the Civil Code, and their application with regard to public administrations: these connections are also discussed in the paper, both with regard to specific areas of the organisation of public administrations, and with regard to the general principles, deriving from civil law, that are applied today within administrative activity.