Vincenzo Tomeo was a Milanese disciple of and among the protagonists of a new wave of Italian sociolegal studies along diverse lines of theoretical thinking and empirical research. Embarking on his academic career in the mid-1960s after a period spent at the Milan Provincial Administration as a civil servant, Tomeo first taught as an assistant professor and lecturer in sociology at Milan University. In 1976, he won the first public competition ever held in Italy for a tenured chair in sociology of law, at Messina University. The university would later name its sociology department after Tomeo. In 1981, he was called back to his original law faculty in Milan to replace Renato Treves (1907–1992) on the latter's retirement; there, he taught sociology of law until ...