Abstract

Status is an ancient concept and at the same time is one of the most tested technical instruments, capable of translating a subjective position into a relevant and lasting condition for the law and a prerequisite of the rights and duties of the person as a part of a social group. In the twentieth century status is one of the concepts that best reflects in its subsequent palingenesis the polysemy and semantic shifts, the transience and reversibility of the political principles and moral ideals that inspire the law of legal orders. The palingenesis of legal status and the denial of the principle of equality found a tragic manifestation in racial persecutions, which introduced the question of the belonging to a particular race as a real personal status, as a prerequisite for the civil and political citizenship and no longer as mere criterion of distinction between citizens and colonial subjects. In this panorama stands the master of civil and labor law Francesco Santoro Passarelli. His comment on the article 1 of the Civil Code and the racial laws is an important chapter in the history of the return of status in the twentieth century.