Pigliaru, Antonio (1922–1969)

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 identify and draw up a draft in legal language of the twenty-three articles [Page 1109]assumed to constitute the Barbagia's vendetta-based code, the unwritten customary rules on which a spontaneous pastoral community was founded.

While the conflict between this spontaneous unwritten law that governed the community and the written, pondered law enacted by the Italian state was inevitable, Pigliaru believed that it was not insuperable. The gap could be narrowed as long as principles of freedom and democracy inspired the process of modernization, and as long as the state made its presence felt in the community “not as a harbinger of police control or of systematic corruption, but as a state of liberation, as a factor for freedom” (1975: 384–85).

Pigliaru focused on the individual's relationship with the legal order. The individual in general, and the scholar of social phenomena in particular, is responsible for her own life, but at the same time for the life of the community. Pigliaru pursued a path of research inspired by the inclusive concept of “we shepherds,” a synthesis of the experience of his own life and the lives of those others who were observed scientifically.

A complex and culturally active personality, Pigliaru founded the journal Ichnusa, first published in 1949 in Sassari, which became a landmark for many Sardinian intellectuals. He also penned numerous articles about subjects ranging from anthropology to philosophy and pedagogy. His contributions were advanced for the times, demonstrating the commitment of a scholar who, in spite of his short life, was able to examine the harshest aspects of his homeland's life within a universal context. Such skills won him recognition both at home and abroad. Some described him as Sardinia's most important intellectual after Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). In particular, Renato Treves (1907–1992) considered him a pioneer in sociology of law and a model for anyone intending to embark on studies about Sardinia.