‘A uso degli operai’. Legal education and social legislation in Italy between the 19th and 20th centuries

The social transformations that affected Italy between the 19th and 20th centuries posed new questions to traditional legal culture, indicating specialised areas of reflection, highlighting previously invisible subjects, and stimulating the experimentation of alternative methodologies and spurious languages. The need to resort to social legislation and particular institutions to respond to emerging instances of a collective nature was deeply motivated by liberal policies for the management of public order and the education of the masses. Within this framework, it is possible to identify a complex institutional toolkit consisting of: national laws on the protection of women and children in the factory; the institution of social security against accidents at work; the establishment of the board of arbitrators of industries; the formation of international labour agreements to protect migrants. The measures put in place in Italy, and corresponding to a transnational model of legal protection for workers, lend themselves to a historiographic reading that moves away from the more traditional history of legislation or a dogmatic perspective and, on the contrary, enhances cultural elements and the contribution of social subjects. The study of the didactics of law for the use of workers can provide an interesting viewpoint, useful to return to reflecting on the reasons (and contradictions) that drove liberal policies on rights and social emancipation, considering the myth of progress and its multiple ambiguities. The reflection I propose moves from these questions and revolves around a few textual examples: law manuals and legal instruction booklets for workers. Who the authors were, when and how the patronage of state institutions took place, what the contribution of private associations was, what the feedback from the recipients was, are some of the issues that will be addressed.