Efficacy in Italian Legal Tradition: Vico

Historians agree, in the vast Viconian literature, that the nineteenth century is that of Vico iureconsultus. Having already been an inspiration in the discipline of legislation during the eighteenth century, Vico was a point of reference for the scholarship exploring the new fields of legal reformism, among which stand out the theories of judicial institutions. Another area of research, which lends substance to the opinion that Vico was an implicit precursor of nineteenth-century thinking, has been less explored, however: we must also consider the philosophy of law, which Vico influenced in many ways in the various schools making up the Italian panorama. During the nineteenth century, reference to Vico ensured a philosophical approach to law capable of highlighting its characteristics as a historical phenomenon and its nature in terms of practical activity. Nonetheless, to refer to Vico is not to discuss Vico: there is no authentic dialogue with his complex thinking. Rather, what comes to the fore, as we read in Nicolini, is the invitation to gain a “profound knowledge of man and his faculties”, as the element wherein “the primary origin, cause, purpose, and nature of human institutions” should be found.