Antonio Pigliaru, a legal philosopher inspired by idealism, was the first Italian scholar to undertake empirical research in the field of law; he began this research immediately after World War II.

Pigliaru's research was devoted to legal pluralism, influenced by the theories developed by such thinkers as Santi Romano (1875–1947) and Giuseppe Capograssi (1889–1956). The work he did in Barbagia, an inland region of Sardinia with an economic structure based on herd animal husbandry, provided an original social case study that is still relevant today. What made Pigliaru's research so original was the methodology he used: he collected information from literary sources, proverbs, local folk stories passed on by word of mouth, judicial records, and interviews conducted in the local dialect. This research enabled Pigliaru to ...