The jurist Pietro Rescigno, one of the great masters of Italian civil law, considered one of the most authoritative civil law scholars of the twentieth century, author of a monumental work on private law, died at the age of 98 in Rome. He was professor emeritus at the University ‘La Sapienza’ of Rome, where he taught from 1970 to 2005, a national member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and in 2014 he was awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. The distinguished civil law scholar, as reported by Adnkronos, passed away today at the Gemelli Medical Center, where the funeral parlor will be set up from 9:30 am on August 26 to 9:30 am on August 28. The funeral will be held at 11:00 am on Friday, August 28 at the Church of the Divine Sapienza at the University of Sapienza in Rome. “Goodbye dad. I will miss you,” wrote his daughter Francesca Rescigno on social media.
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Reference point for generations of students
Generations of law students have been trained using Rescigno’s civil law manuals. In the “Introduction to the Civil Code” (Laterza, 1991), Rescigno provided a critical assessment of the fifty years of its application and retraced its formative stages. Through the reading of the individual books of the code and in light of the republican Constitution and special laws, Rescigno, while aware of the diminishing “centrality” of the Civil Code in the legal system, made a positive comparison between the persistent relevance of the solutions adopted by the 1942 codification in some sectors and the radical transformations that have taken place in others. Born in Salerno on January 15, 1928, graduated in law from the University of Naples in 1948, a student of Francesco Santoro-Passarelli and Alessandro Graziani,
Rescigno began his academic career in 1952, teaching civil law at the University of Macerata and later at Pavia, Bologna, and finally from 1970 at ‘Sapienza’ in Rome. Co-editor of several important specialized journals in the field (Rivista di Diritto Civile, Giurisprudenza Italiana, Rivista di Diritto Commerciale, Il Diritto dell’Informazione dell’Informatica, Gius, Rivista Critica di Diritto Privato), he was director of the Private Law Library, the Civil Section of the Legal Encyclopedia of the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, the Treatise on Private Law, and the Treatise on Contracts with Enrico Gabrielli.
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Lawyer since 1951
Rescigno was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, the Venetian Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, the Pontanian Academy of Naples, the Lombard Institute of Sciences and Letters, the Peloritana Academy of Messina, the European Academy, the Italian Arbitration Association, of which he chaired the Scientific Council. He was also president of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies in Naples and a member from 1990 to 2006 of the National Bioethics Committee. He was part of commissions and scientific committees at the Ministry of Grace and Justice and other state and international organizations. Since 1951 he also practiced as a lawyer. Rescigno was director of the “Treatise on Private Law” (23 volumes, 1982-88, Utet).
In his early works, he dealt with natural causes limiting the capacity of the subject (“Natural incapacity and performance,” 1950) and conducted studies in inheritance law (“Interpretation of the will,” 1952) and obligations (“Studies on assumption of debt,” 1958). Among his wide interests were also the study of modern trade unionism (“Trade unions in the modern state,” 1965) and the patrimonial aspects of family law (“Lessons on property and family,” 1977). Other notable works include: “Person and community” (1966 and subsequent editions); “Manual of private law” (1973 and subsequent editions); “Abuse of law” (1998); “Marriage and family. Fifty years of Italian law” (2000); “Damage from procreation and other writings between ethics and law” (2006); “People and social groups” (2006). The academic received numerous awards in Italy and abroad, including an honorary degree in law from the University of Bologna in 2001 and the appointment as honorary professor at the Universities of San Marcos in Lima and Externado in Bogotá. (by Paolo Martini)
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