"Force Disguised as Reason": Law, Jurists, and Constituent Power in Boccaccio's Decameron. Issue 4 (1st July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vespaziani, Alberto
• Is Part Of: German law journal. Volume 19:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 879
• Page End: 900
• Publication Date: 2018-07-01
• Subjects: Law -- Germany -- Periodicals; Law -- Europe -- Periodicals; Comparative law -- Periodicals; International law -- Periodicals; jurisprudence; 349.4
• DOI: 10.1017/S2071832200022902
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2071-8322

Abstract

Abstract : This Article presents the Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, as a classic writing of universal literature that contains anticipations and fundamental innovations of the political categories of modernity: Contractualism, constituent power, constitutional deliberation, rhetoric, and the relation with Fortuna. The argument is developed in three parts: Initially, the legal and European dimension of the Decameron are summarized; then the discussion focuses on legal issues and institutional characters narrated in the novels; finally, the introduction of the work is analyzed, in which both the political-constitutional theme of the new beginning of the community and the collective archetype of the plague are interpreted as metaphors for the state of exception.