The essay covers the life, work and legal thinking of one of the most brilliant Italian civil lawyers of the early 20th century. Messina was one of the first Italian jurists to abandon exegesist methodology. He encountered the German Pandectist school of thought; however, he differed from these scholars in that he adopted a wholly State-centred concept of law. B esides being a distinguished civil lawyer, Messina also considered Italian trade union law. In particular he produced a range of studies on collective contracts, which put him in the first rank of European labour lawyers. Finally, Messina collaborated in the creation of the first administrative body, which gave rise to the Ministry of Labour (Consiglio superiore del lavoro), the development of the Charter of Labour and was an MP from 1929 until January 1934.