On the Italian style. The eclectic canon and the relationship of theory to practice as key-elements of Italian legal culture (19th-20th centuries)

This paper, following some of John Merryman’s suggestions regarding the “Italian style” concept, aims to shed new light on Italian legal culture between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The article seeks to identify in particular the “anthropological-cultural” dimension of the Italian jurist’s experience. For this purpose I propose a new interpretative concept, namely, the “eclectic canon”. It has to do with the general category of «eclecticism» but it is something different and more than this. It is an approach that can help us to appreciate the complexity of Italian legal culture by transcending the oft-told “tale” in two chapters (French influence first (1800-1870), German influence subsequently: 1870-1920). We are concerned here with a cultural foundation pre-existing the so-called Schools (Exegèse, Historische Schule, Philosophical or Benthamit School…). The eclectic canon is not a school but rather a deep stratum. It does not produce a system or a legal order. It deals above all with the habitus, or the ways of being a jurist. Italian style entails the tempering of different stances. In effect, another consequence of the eclectic canon - constantly noted by most Italian jurists - would be that of the combination of theory and practice in the actual design of legal culture.