This brief article describes the figure of Adolfo Beria di Argentine, who passed away on July 26th, 2000. A high ranking judge and public prosecutor for many years (amongst other positions, he held that of President of the Juvenile Court of Milan, attorney-general at the Milan Court of Appeal and President of the Associazione Nazionale Magistrati), for almost fifty years Beria played a decisive role also at a societal level, as a writer, a journalist and an internationally renowned organiser of scientific events. His work in this field, especially through the Centro nazionale di prevenzione e difesa sociale, which he himself founded in 1948, proved to be particularly decisive to the growth of an "open" legal culture, as well as to the renaissance of social sciences in Italy.