The Birth of Sociology of Law: Carlo Nardi-Greco
The Birth of Sociology of Law: Carlo Nardi-Greco

Summary/Abstract: Carlo Nardi-Greco (Naples, 1883 - Serravalle Langhe, 1944) was the author of the first work entirely dedicated to the sociology of law, entitledSociologia giuridica. Contributo, i.e. Juridical Sociology: A contribution(Turin, Fratelli Bocca, 1907; first impression: 1906). Although the work hasremained largely ignored, it is important for its intrinsic value, as well as forits documentary relevance. Using the naturalistic results proffered by the fieldsof biology and psychology as his starting points, the author develops a historical/social research methodology in which many and various confluentdisciplinary streams merge, the various tributaries surging from his vast juridical knowledge and from other scientific ambits, such as anthropology,history, ethnography, sociology, economics and philosophy. After havinganalysed the specific characteristics taken on by the law in various and sundry types of social aggregations, Nardi-Greco delineates the very essence ofthe juridical, which in his view resides in what he calls the ‘social entity’, aforce that need not necessarily be politically organised. His position, in direct contrast to juridical statism, confers upon his work – phrased in positivist conceptual terms, albeit at times in heterodox ways – a clearly anti-formalistic connotation and undoubtedly innovative communicative power. Andeven in his inquiry with respect to the general causes that determine variations in law, Nardi-Greco aggregates motivations deriving from a psychicmatrix, with economic conditions driving historical change in a multi-layered – assuredly daring and yet extremely fecund – union of nature andnurture, of the doctrine of evolution and of historical materialism.

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