Book Reviews : LUIGI FERRAJOLI, Diritto e ragione: Teona del garantismo penale. Bari-Roma: Laterza, 1990, 1034 pp., Lire 80,000 hardback
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Author | Vincenzo Ruggiero |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399400300110 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
185-
BOOK REVIEWS
LUIGI
FERRAJOLI,
Diritto
e
ragione:
Teona
del
garantismo
penale.
Bari-Roma:
Laterza,
1990, 1034
pp.,
Lire
80,000
hardback.
Luigi
Ferrajoli
is
very
well
known
in
Italy
for
his
impassioned
participation
in
the
critical
legal
debate
and,
in
general,
the
political
and
cultural
conflicts
of
the
last
two
decades.
During
the
course
of
the
turbulent
Italian
1970s,
we
have
all
learned
something
from
him:
political
activitists,
students,
militant
journalists,
open-minded
or
ordinary
people,
as
well
as
consummate
scholars.
The
relentless
production
of
emergency
laws
in
Italy,
in
the
face
respectively
of
’armed
struggle’,
the
explosion
of
the
drug
phenomenon
and,
finally,
the
spectacular
resurgence
of
organized
crime,
cannot
be
analysed
without
the
recourse
to
Ferrajoli’s
critical
work.
Educated
within
the
enlightened
tradition
set
by
philosopher
of
law
Norberto
Bobbio,
the
author
of
this
book
admits
his
debt
to
the
’father’
of
many
Italian
jurists,
but
goes
far
beyond
his
teachings.
Ferrajoli
attempts
to
formulate
a
comprehensive
theory
of
law,
and
achieves
his
task
convincingly.
In
the
words
of
Bobbio,
who
prefaces
the
1000
and
more
pages
of
this
book,
Diritto
e
Ragione
(Law
and
Reason)
is
the
result
of
a
vast
and
meticulous
exploration
carried
out
in
the
fields
of
philosophy,
epistemology,
ethics,
logic,
law
theory
and
the
history
of
judicial
institutions.
This
scholarly
commitment
is
enriched
by
Ferrajoli’s
former
experience
as
a
judge.
The
stakes
are
high:
the
construction
of
a
theory
of
garantismo
penale
or,
in
Bobbio’s
words:
’the
building
up
of
the
main
walls
of
the
rule
of
law,
whose
foundations
and
goals
are
geared
to
the
protection
of
individual
liberty
against
varied
forms
of
arbitrary
power’.
The
term
garanttsmo
does
not
translate
into
English
smoothly.
However,
a
brief
definition
can
be
attempted
which
may
also
help
identify
the
philosophical
and
political
tradition
in
which
Ferrajoli
belongs.
Garantismo
(guaranteeism?)
has
little
in
common
with
mere
legalism
or
with
legal
and
procedural
formalism.
Rather,
it
is
synonymous
with
the
defence
and
the
promotion
of
fundamental
rights:
the
right
to
life
and
individual
freedom,
the
right
to
civil
and
political
liberties,
the
right
to
the
social
means
of
existence.
These
non-alienable
rights
are
by
no
means
guaranteed
by
contemporary
states,
although
they
constitute
the
core
values
whose
protection
and
promotion
justify
the
very
existence
of
the
’artifice’
that
we
call
the
state.
Garantismo
also
entails
the
rights
of
the
vulnerable
against
the
rights
of
the
powerful,
and
alludes
to
the
certainty
of
law
as
opposed
to
arbitrariness.
It
implies
a
distinction
between
morality
and
the
law,
a
distinction
which
confines
the
legitimacy
of
state
intervention
to
a
very
limited
terrain.
For
all
these
reasons,
garantismo
is
not
merely
to
be
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Thousand
Oaks
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
3
(1994), 185-192
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