Tarello, Giovanni (1934–1987)

Giovanni Tarello was a theorist, historian, and sociologist of law. Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Genova, his personality and work have been influential in Italian legal culture. He was one of the prominent figures of the analytical school of jurisprudence and of legal realism in Italy. His main works are Il realismo giuridico americano (1962, American Legal Realism), Diritto, enunciati, usi: Studi di teoria e metateoria del diritto (1974, Law, Formulations, Uses), Storia della cultura giuridica moderna I: Assolutismo e codificazione del diritto (1976, History of Modern Legal Culture), and L'interpretazione della legge (1980, The Interpretation of Statutes).

In the general theory of law, Tarello adhered to the linguistic analysis of law, elaborating on the classical topics of analytical philosophy, such as the difference between prescriptive and descriptive language and the relationship between a sentence and its meaning. Tarello distinguished two concepts of a norm—as sentence and as meaning—and agreed with the interpretative skepticism according to which a given norm, meant as sentence, might have several meanings. These are properly different norms, and the choice between them is not cognitive but voluntary. Therefore, in Tarello's view, a norm is less the object of the interpretative activity than its result. This elaboration of the concepts of norm and interpretation was functional to the description of law as the outcome of the interpretative activity of jurists and judges, whose role in the making of law is more important than the legislator's role.

Tarello conceived the linguistic analysis of law as a conceptual investigation that had to be tested in reality. Within the Italian school of analytical jurisprudence, Tarello was one of the main supporters of legal realism's approach against the dogmatism and formalism widely diffused in Italian legal culture and those analytical and philosophical conceptualizations about language that failed to contribute to the understanding and improvement of legal method and juristic activity. In some works, he also devoted himself to the analysis of labor laws and property laws.

The role of interpretation and of jurists and judges in making law was also crucial in Tarello's historical and sociological research. He saw the analysis of legal culture as the investigation of ideologies, techniques, and attitudes adopted from those who take part in the legal process. Tarello dealt with the history of codifications in continental Europe, highlighting the different cultural movements at the origin of this process and the changes produced in the role of jurists, especially with regard to the technical part of their activity.