F. Calasso’s concept of ius commune, the Romanist tradition, and the problem of historical representation

Abstract

On 16th January 1933 the young Francesco Calasso (1904-1965) delivered a prolusion on a subject that was to take the new generation of legal historians by storm: "The concept of the ius commune." 

 
His prolusion not only changed the image of the legal past but also gave a new impetus to legal history placing it at the heart of legal science. 

Today we need to go back in time and look closely at what he said, because the ius commune, which in the following decades became a major key to understanding the legal past, is now unclear. 

Outline:  I. 1933: rethinking the ius commune, II. The historical problem of the ius commune, III. The Romanist tradition, guardian of orthodoxy, IV. What Savigny could not see: the ius commune as explained in the year 1573, V. Calasso’s methodology and the problem of historical representation, V. Conclusion: Romanists vs. legal historians 

Keywords: ius commune, Pandectism, representation, history theory, Romanist tradition, historical representation