Symposium Introduction: Italy's Crisis of Justice (original) (raw)
Related papers
Oral history, oral culture, and Italian Americans, edited by Luisa Del Giudice
Modern Italy, 2012
(for example, the president of the court had reacted to defendants' testimonies with ironic remarks that made spectators laugh) and the decision to build seating and distribute tickets, as though the defendants were to be stared at like wild beasts exhibited in a circus. Simpson observes that popular jokes and metaphors and widespread poetic and artistic interpretation of the affair illustrated the ways in which the event 'penetrated the imagination of Italians'. The story attracted cultural celebrities of the time like Giosue Carducci and Cesare Lombroso; Francesco Netti's In Corte d'Assise, an 'anodyne classical scene' still on display at the Pinacoteca Provinciale in Bari, survives as a visual legacy of the trial. Following these developments, Simpson outlines the 'sociological lineaments' and 'psychosocial underpinnings' of the crime, framing an interpretative scheme in which every character played a role. The victim represented the nation and, in his virtues of rectitude and integrity, stood for progress and the young state. The plotting couple symbolised the South and, in particular, Cardinali, the acrobat snared by the captain's wife to kill her husband, stood for 'subterfuge, primitivism, and bestiality' (p. 20). The murder was more than an ordinary act carried out for love or money. It was 'an assault on the virtues that sustained the state, identified in turn with modern civilization itself' (p. 184). In its symbolic reach the Fadda-Saraceni story mirrored relations between civilians and the army in the South, prejudiced by an established tradition of mutual distrust. Throughout the book, Simpson describes how journalists exploited the Fadda affair. In particular, two new newspapers, the Corriere della Sera, founded in 1876 in Milan, and Il Messaggero, established in 1878 in Rome, increased their circulation on the back of the trial. In November 1879, an editorial note in the Corriere della Sera responded to a subscriber from Modena who had asked 'Wouldn't it be possible to publish an issue virgin of shame?' by saying that, were it to follow the suggestion, 'We would fail in the first duty of journalism, which is to display the world just as it is'. Simpson concedes that crime and judicial reporting played a significant role in the diffusion of literacy and in the spread of the habit of reading after unification, but he also points out that often the journalistic treatment of new stories was characterised by a process of 'novelisation': details that no one could verify were introduced by correspondents, who grew more and more accustomed to drawing on the modes of crime fiction. The Fadda case, the author notes, soon became 'a spectacle of distortion', containing 'in prototypical form all the nightmarish elements that have since become canonical to the media circus phenomenon' (p. 187).
For a more in-depth analysis of some ideas mentioned herein, see-in addition to the studies contained in this volume-the preface to my work entitled Studi di diritto comparato e in tema di interpretazione, Milano, 1952, and my paper Interpretazione del diritto e diritto comparato, republished in Saggi di diritto commerciale, Milano, 1955; and for examples as regards the difference between regulae juris and concepts pertaining to a typological reconstruction of reality (a distinction which ENGISCH now has also referred to), in addition to the above, see also my papers Considerazioni in tema di personalità giuridica and Sul concetto di titolo di credito, republished in the aforementioned Saggi di diritto commerciale. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Filippo Vassalli and will be included in the studies in memory of the late Professor. (Ascarelli's original note) ** Translation by Camilla Crea, Associate Professor of Private Law, University of Sannio, School of Law. Thanks to Keith Baverstock and to an anonimous referee for their precious advice in some translating choices. This translation refers to the text of the essay 'Antigone and Portia' republished in T. Ascarelli, Problemi giuridici, I (Milano: Giuffrè, 1959), 3-15 (henceforward DOC B) for it is the most quoted. Significant discrepancies with the first version (published in Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia del Diritto, 1955, 756-766: henceforward DOC A), as well as with the latest version of the same essay included in Studi giuridici in memoria di Filippo Vassalli (Torino: Utet, 1960), 107-117 (henceforward DOC C) are documented in the translator's footnotes.
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 2024
Making use as a guideline of a self-authored manuscript-dated February 2000where the "Maestro" reveals himself, this essay explores the academic life and the scholarly achievements of Rodolfo Sacco, the Italian master of comparative law, who just recently passed away. His intellectual endeavor is described throughout the lenses of a common thread that underlies his entire scholarly output: it his ability to illuminate the dark places of law, finding it where no one had sought it before. This is the essence of his original contribution to the understanding of the legal landscape's dynamics and it is the core of his cultural legacy, not only to comparative lawyers, but also to the community of the jurists at large.
Italian Art Society Newsletter, XXXV, 2, Spring 2024, 2024
Salve a tutti, I hope this message and spring issue of the IAS newsletter finds you all well and enjoying the start to summer. I am sure many of you have exciting plans for research, travel, and hopefully, some relaxation. I am writing you en route to Sorrento for the AAIS conference, where several IAS members and officers will also be speaking. I'm especially looking forward to the IAS-sponsored session, "Cultivating Sacred Vision: Body-Mind Practices and Devotional Art in Early Renaissance Italy," organized and chaired by Holly Flora (Tulane University).