La situazione accademica della sociologia del diritto in Italia

After surveying the evolution of the regulations governing how the sociology of law is placed academically in scientific disciplinary sectors and in classes of degrees, the authors focus in particular on the range of teaching and the characteristics of the lecturers available in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 academic years. Outlining the teaching of socio-legal materials in Italian universities in quality and quantity terms, the authors describe the framework of a discipline that has gradually acquired presence and relevance in a variety of university careers over the years and is now a constituent part of numerous legal and social study curricula, being taught in practice in a large number of faculties in the majority of Italy’s universities. This achievement seems to have benefited from the variety of approaches adopted for different reasons to socio-legal studies in the area of the social sciences (deviance, organisations, the anthropological-legal approach), as well as from the close relations they have always entertained with the area of the philosophy of law, now confirmed by the new single-cycle degree courses in law. The sociology of law also has new challenges to face: in particular, it will be necessary in due course to evaluate the effects of the new organisation of curricula to be introduced in application of Italian Law N° 270/2004, known colloquially as the reform of the reform, which leaves greater freedom of decision and action to individual universities.

Guido Maggioni, Eduardo Barberis, La situazione accademica della sociologia del diritto in Italia in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO " 1/2007, pp 133-168, DOI: