Papers
The role of punishment in the works of Adam Smith
published in "Storia e Politica" 2009
The reformation of criminal justice is one of the great themes in Enlightenment culture and concerned its main exponents from Montesquieu to Beccaria, Filangieri, Bentham. One of the traits of greater modernity in the theories worked out by juridical Enlightenment is the resort to the utilitarian-inspired economic analysis. Adam Smith doesn't back out of this scientific and civil commitment, but his doctrine appears significantly different though contemporary to juridical Enlightenment, and is also based on economic argumentations. In this work we will look through the main writings which contain the Smithian thought in search of those parts dealing with the theme of punishment and its social function, pointing out the differences with what was being divulged by other authors of the Enlightenment. We will try to explain this distance by going back to the different epistemological vision between Scottish doctrine of natural law and European utilitarianism, offering some hints for a reconsideration of the role Smith has in the history of economic thought.
LikeIl marginalismo giuridico di Gaetano Filangieri
published in "Studi e note di economia", 2009
This work aims at presenting the elements of marginalist analysis which occur
in the thought of Gaetano Filangieri. In the pages of La Scienza della
Legislazione the Neapolitan writer shows the tendency to develop a utilitarian
investigation which pays attention to the judgements individuals make
over social phenomena at the margin point. A proof of this tendency can be
found in the explanation of the principle of decreasing marginal utility,
argued in Head XXXI of Book III, which represents one of the most effective
demonstrations that can be found before the end of XIX century literature. The
most remarkably original fact is that, of all the five parts which compose the
Filangierian work, the most rich one in marginalist arguments is dedicated to
“Criminal Laws”.
This article will point out this and other innovative results of the Filangerian
analysis and will also offer a reconstruction of the economic theory on crime
and punishment presented in La Scienza della Legislazione. Filangieri’s criminal
doctrine represents in fact a significant example on its own of the
Enlightenment antecedents of “Law and Economics”, as well as the better
known contributions made by Beccaria e Bentham.
Criminology and Economic Ieas in the Age of Enlightenment
published in "History of Economic Ideas", 2009
My purpose is to point out that during the age of Enlightenment, and its later nineteenth-
century expressions, the most relevant works on law contain examples of economic
ideas about criminal phenomena and their legal repression. I will comment
the analytic conclusions to which the authors of the time got to, with reference to
specific questions such as the definition of crime, the determination of punishment,
the judicial procedure.
I will take into account some of the most representative European writers: Montesquieu,
Beccaria and Bentham. The authors I selected share the characteristic of
being all exponents of utilitarianism and of presenting elements which forerun neoclassical
economics in the method and analysis they employ. Besides, they have all
worked out models for criminal repression which are quite similar to the contemporary
model conceived by Gary Becker
Le istituzioni, la politica e la legislazione negli articoli de La Croce di Savoia
published in "Il Pensiero economico italiano", 2008
The journal «La Croce di Savoia» has been considered for a long time a source of great interest in the historiography on Francesco Ferrara for the particular historical circumstances in which it was published and for the first-rank role economic ideas had among the contents of its articles. Public finance, commercial policy and custom duties reform are among its most recurring topics, together with a wider range of topics of discussion such as: the institutions, their organization and their functioning; the political action of States and of political parties; the legislation over the judicial organization and over local authorities.
The essay focuses on the writings pointing out the economic implications of the functioning of the public sphere, the consequences of alternative institutional structures over national economy, and the effects of the political choices by government and public authorities on general wealth. The in-depth study of the contributions to this journal is favoured by an advancement in the knowledge over the journal which, thanks to archive research, has allowed in the last years to reconstruct its history and most of all to find out the authors of the articles, which were almost entirely published as anonymous.
La Croce di Savoia e il liberalismo siciliano nel Regno di Sardegna: 1850-1851
published in "Società e Storia", 2007
L'articolo "La Croce di Savoia" e il liberalismo siciliano nel Regno di Sardegna: 1850-1851 ricostruisce l'esperienza editoriale del quotidiano che Francesco Ferrara fondò insieme a Emerico Amari e Vito D'Ondes Reggio nei primi anni del loro esilio dopo il fallimento della Rivoluzione del '48. Il giornale, che fu la voce dei liberali palermitani, intervenne vivacemente in tutti i principali dibattiti del Piemonte all'inizio della sua vita statutaria e divenne, anche se per breve tempo, protagonista nello scenario politico subalpino. La redazione si contraddistinse per la fiducia nel libero mercato, il sostegno alla realizzazione di un sistema politico rappresentativo, la richiesta di un ampio decentramento amministrativo e la propaganda dell'ideale federalista.
Il saggio ripercorre, grazie a fonti d'archivio e carte inedite, le vicende umane e politiche della nascita e attività della testata, identifica gli autori dei numerosi pezzi pubblicati anonimi e approfondisce il contributo di idee che con i loro scritti gli intellettuali siciliani offrirono alla cultura del Risorgimento.
Emerico Amari, Vito D'Ondes Reggio e Francesco Ferrara: elementi di analisi economica del diritto nel Risorgimento
published in "Diritto e Questioni pubbliche" 2009
L'articolo approfondisce il contributo che i giuristi ed economisti siciliani, di estrazione liberale, offrirono con i loro scritti
tra il finire degli anni trenta del XIX secolo e il compimento dell’unificazione nazionale. I nomi sono quelli di Emerico Amari, Vito D’Ondes Reggio e Francesco Ferrara, che nel contesto risorgimentale furono protagonisti tanto nel panorama culturale quanto in quello politico.
Procederemo presentando negli autori presi in considerazione la visione epistemologia e gli intenti di ricerca. Metteremo in risalto il percorso che li spinge verso lo studio economico del diritto e le argomentazioni con le quali sostennero e legittimarono la loro posizione davanti il dissenso di ambienti dottrinari contrapposti. A seguire affronteremo un tema specifico nel quale si possono scorgere con chiarezza spunti di una teoria economico-giuridica.
La funzione della pena e della deterrenza, uno dei dibattiti più ricorrenti tra il XVIII e il XIX secolo negli ambienti riformisti,
offre esempi interessanti di riflessione economica applicata alla
legislazione.
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