Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyse some interesting remarks by Stefano Rodotà concerning Henry Sumner Maine's famous thesis about the evolution towards progressive societies as a movement from status to contract. In order to grasp the complexities of Rodotà's stance regarding Maine's dictum, the paper reconstructs some classical approaches about it (such as those of R.H. Graveson, W. Friedmann and M.R.Cohen) discussed by Rodotà, and compares his considerations with those of J.Russell VerSteeg, author of a more recent, but not less intriguing, study on Maine's statement.