The study of vindicatory law conducted by legal historians towards the end of the nineteenth century - of whom Giovanni (Nino) Tamassia [1860-1931] was an outstanding exponent - has itself a characteristic of vindicatory law, since it was conducted with method and with intellectual probity, even though the discovery of vindicatory law conflicted with the belief in the progress of law which the same historians sustained at that time. In practice, they explained vindicatory law using motives that clashed with the hegemonic criterion of a linear progress of law. Tamassia in particular described and explained certain underlying characteristics of vindicatory law, including privileging conciliation, the legal context of the feud and vendetta construed as a penalty issued by an authority.
Keywords: Giovanni Tamassia ‒ Vindicatory Law ‒ Conciliation ‒ Feud ‒ Vendetta