L'ordinamento giuridico

by Santi Romano

First published in 1917 (Part 1) and 1918 (Part 2), with a second edition in 1946, this is the first English translation of Santi Romano's classic work, L'ordinamento giuridico (The Legal Order). The main focus of The Legal Order is the notion of institution, which Romano considers to be both the core and distinguishing feature of law. After criticising accounts of the nature of law centred on notions of rule, coercion or authority, he offers a compelling conception, not merely of law as an institution, but of the institution as 'the first, original and essential manifestation of law'. Romano advances a definition of a legal institution as any group who share rules within a bounded context: for example, a family, a firm, a factory, a prison, an association, a church, an illegal organisation, a state, the community of states, and so on. Therefore, this understanding of legal institutionalism at the same time provides a ground-breaking theory of legal pluralism whereby 'there are as many legal orders as institutions'. The acme of a jurisprudential current long overlooked in the Anglophone environment (Romano's work is highly regarded in France, Germany, Spain and South America, as well as in Italy), The Legal Order not only proposes what Carl Schmitt described as a 'very significant theory'. More importantly, it offers precious insights for a thorough rethinking of the relationship between law and society in today's world.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

Reviews

[Matilde]

Did not enjoy Croce's afterword, but this is a seminal piece of Italian legal theory. Reveals a continental European genealogy of legal institutionalism and pluralism, though in my opinion not as deep as Maurice Hauriou's work.

[Czarek Węgliński · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent study on pluralistic reality of legal orders. Very clear and consistent presentation of reasoning. Nowadays it could be completed with many other issues of legal systems and is maybe too limited to only legal methods of reasoning but, still, gives a very interesting vision of the concept of law.