Il senso della storia, i tempi del diritto. Nota su diritto e tempo nella riflessione programmatica di Friedrich Carl von Savigny

Through a synthetical survey of the fundamental theories developed by the Historical School of Law, the essay aims at offering some cues on the relationship between law and time, observing it in a crucial moment for the definition of contemporary legal historicism. F. C. von Savigny, in his early-nineteenth century writings, launched a successful scientific project involving the flow of history as the natural dimension of the legal phenomenon along with its positive expressions; but according to what characters and modes? The ideal balance, which he suggested, between the ‘historical’ and ‘systematic’ natures of law, and the ‘stylization’ of historical eras, aimed at reading the ‘vocations’ of the present times, represent some of the main features of critical ideas which were to deeply and lastingly influence legal sciences.