Cesare Beccaria e la filosofia politica normativa

The article ponders a number of key concepts in Cesare Beccaria’s political thought (contractualism, the relationship between legal obligation, justice, utility and rights) and links them to the theory of legal obligation based on the duty of fair play proposed by Herbert L. A. Hart. Highlighting the importance of Beccaria’s positions to contemporary political philosophy, the essay also maintains the usefulness, for normative political philosophers, of taking a historical approach to this author.