The Legal Order (Law and Politics) - Softcover

Romano, Santi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367180804 ISBN 13: 9780367180805

Publisher: Routledge, 2018

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Santi Romano (1875–1947) was one of the key figures of Italian legal scholarship in the twentieth century. He was professor of Public Law in many prestigious Italian universities and was the President of the Italian Council of State, the highest legal-administrative body ensuring the legality of public administration.

Mariano Croce is Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy at Sapienza – Universitą di Roma, Italy. His research includes theory of the state, legal and political institutionalism, legal pluralism and LGBTQIA studies. Among his books are The Legal Theory of Carl Schmitt (Routledge, 2013, with A. Salvatore) and Undoing Ties: Political Philosophy at the Waning of the State (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, with A. Salvatore).

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0367180804
• ISBN 13: 9780367180805
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 145