Abstract

Starting from a semantic reconstruction of the word "Justice", the author explores the relationships between Justice and Law. In particular, the author analyzes, in historical perspective, the concept of Justice, compared both to "natural law" and with respect to the culture of positivism which prevailed in the nineteenth century. From that moment on - which marks a fundamental theoretical break inside modernity - the word "Justice" will stay linked to that of law. This raises the problem of distinguishing between fair and unfair law: a problem that has been at the centre of the legal and philosophical debate during the xx century, and it is still central also in the State constitutional law.