Research: Polymorphism and continuity in Roman constitutionalism
The research project aims to show how the legal-political thinking that developed in the late Roman Republic, with particular reference to Cicero's writings, is fully part of the tradition of constitutionalism and how, despite the radical institutional and theoretical changes that took place in the Modern Age, it has exerted, and continues to exert, a considerable influence on that tradition. The investigation will focus on the debate de re publica that took place around the 1st century BC concerning the legitimacy of the institution of imperia extra ordinem and their compatibility with libertas, the founding principle of the republican system, and with some fundamental institutions of the system that this same principle was intended to substantiate, such as the right of provocatio ad populum, intercessio tribunica and, more generally, all the fundamental rules of the system aimed at establishing a mixed and temperate government. In the context of the so-called crisis of the Republic, in fact, the potential inherent in the concept of ius and its irreducibility to lex was fully developed, culminating with Cicero in the theorisation of a higher legal system, identified with the lex naturalis, in turn accessible through its identity with the recta ratio, capable of regulating and legitimising the institution of imperia extra ordinem aimed at overcoming emergencies as they arose and ensuring their compatibility with the aforementioned fundamental principles of the Res Publica. In the course of this work, we will attempt to show the peculiarity of Roman constitutionalism with respect to the later constitutionalist tradition, especially the modern one, and the relevance of the contribution of the legal-political thought of the late Roman Republic to some fundamental issues of today's constitutionalist debate, such as, for example, the problem of constitutional guarantees of individual rights during a state of emergency and the risks of it degenerating into a state of exception.