Emilio Betti (

Camerino Camerino is a town in the province of Macerata, Marche, central-eastern Italy. It is located in the Apennines bordering Umbria, between the valleys of the rivers Potenza and Chienti, about from Ancona. Camerino is home to the University of Ca ...

, 20 August 1890 – Camorciano di Camerino, 11 August 1968) was an Italian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

Roman Law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Jus ...

scholar, philosopher and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

. He is best known for his contributions to

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of Biblical hermeneutics, biblical texts, wisdom literature, and Philosophy, philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles ...

, part of a broad interest in interpretation. As a legal theorist, Betti is close to interpretivism. Betti's intellectual support of

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

between the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the beginning of the 1920s led him to be arrested in 1944, in Camerino. Betti remained in prison for about a month, as decided by the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale. In August 1945, Betti was presented to court and absolved of every accusation. His political choices, anyway, have not diminished the value and importance of his work. Between many other things, Betti was one of the members of the drafting commission for the Italian

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property, family, and obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdictions with a civil code, a number of the core ...

of 1942. Betti is perhaps best known for his work in

. He took issue with the hermeneutic views of Hans Georg Gadamer and argued that interpreters should attempt to reconstruct the author's intentions. His work influenced the work of

E. D. Hirsch Eric "E. D." Donald Hirsch Jr. (born 1928) is an American educator, literary critic, and theorist of education. He is professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. Hirsch is best known for his 1987 book ''C ...

, the chief English-language spokesman for authorial intention. However, his influence in English has been limited by the lack of translations of his hermeneutic work.

Major works

Betti was a prolific writer. This is just a small part of his works: *''Sulla opposizione dell'exceptio sull'actio e sulla concorrenza tra loro'' (1913). *''La vendicatio romana primitiva e il suo svolgimento storico nel diritto privato e nel processo'' (1915). *''L'antitesi storica tra iudicare (pronuntiatio) e damnare (condemnatio) nello svolgimento del processo romano'' (1915). *''Studii sulla litis aestimatio del processo civile romano'': I Pavia (1915), III (Camerino, 1919). *''Sul valore dogmatico della categoria contahere in giuristi proculiani e sabiniani'' (1916). *''La restaurazione sullana e il suo esito (Contributo allo studio della crisi della costituzione repubblicana in Roma)'' (1916). *''La struttura dell'obbligazione romana e il problema della sua genesi'' (1919). *''Il concetto della obbligazione costruito dal punto di vista dell'azione'' (1920). *''Trattato dei limiti soggettivi della cosa giudicata in diritto romano'' (1922). *''La tradizione nel diritto romano classico e giustinianeo'' (1924–25). *''Esercitazioni romanistiche su casi pratici: I, anormalità del negozio giuridico'' (1930). *''Diritto romano: parte generale'' (1935). *''Teoria generale del negozio giuridico'' (1943). *''Teoria generale delle obbligazioni'' (1953–1955). *''Teoria generale della interpretazione'' (1955–1960). *''Teoria delle obbligazioni in diritto romano'' (1956). *''Teoria generale della interpretazione'' (1955–1960). *''Attualità di una teoria generale dell'interpretazione'' (1967).

References and further reading

* Ciocchetti, Mario (1998). ''Emilio Betti, Giureconsulto e umanista''. Belforte del Chienti. *Pressler, Charles and Dasilva Fabio (1996). ''Sociology and Interpretation From Weber to Habemas.'' State University of New York Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Betti, Emilio 1890 births 1968 deaths Hermeneutists 20th-century jurists 20th-century Italian jurists 20th-century Italian philosophers Italian fascists Italian jurists People from the Province of Macerata