Time and Legal Change: Some Methodological Remarks on Italy’s Transition to Democracy

This chapter focuses on Italy’s struggle to hold Fascism to account between 1943–1946 within the complex framework of the nation’s transition to democracy after World War II. This historical turn will be taken as an example of a specific regime of temporality, one in which the conjunctural features of time exercise an attributive force over legal issues. Responding to the demand for justice was an unavoidable step in the aftermath of the dictatorship, and the manner in which this issue was handled qualified some long-term solutions that were absorbed into the democratic legal order. The tension between restorative justice and national appeasement will be considered on two analytical levels: normative framework and legal debate. The concluding remarks will propose some methodological considerations on the importance of transitional time for historical research, with ascriptive time also being examined in general terms.