AN ECONOMIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LAW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: GAETANO FILANGIERI AND LA SCIENZA DELLA LEGISLAZIONE

摘要

This work presents the elements of economic analysis of law that occur in theudthought of Gaetano Filangieri. In the pages of La Scienza della Legislazione theudNeapolitan writer develops a utilitarian and economic investigation that paysudattention to the judgments individuals make over social phenomena at the marginudpoint. A proof of this development can be found in the explanation of the principleudof decreasing marginal utility, argued in Head XXXI of Book III, which representsudone of the most effective demonstrations that can be found before the end ofudnineteenth-century literature. The most remarkable fact is that, of all the five partsudthat compose the Filangierian work, the most rich in economic arguments isuddedicated to ‘‘Criminal Laws.’’udThis article will point out this and other innovative results of the Filangerianudanalysis, and will also offer a reconstruction of the economic theory on crime andudpunishment presented in La Scienza della Legislazione. Filangieri’s criminaluddoctrine represents a significant example of the Enlightenment antecedents ofud‘‘law and economics,’’ as well as the better known contributions made byudBeccaria and Bentham