Abstract

The principle of reciprocity between rights and duties should be the foundation of the legal order in German Enlightenment (W. Dilthey). I say “shouldµ because some natural law doctrines of that time – the progressive ones – try to bring into agreement the principle of reciprocity and the anthropological value of individual difference (V. Fiorillo), although in the opinion of the same doctrines individual difference means also that certain men (husband, father, lord or master) have a natural potestas over others (wife, child, servant). Thus, that value ends up being incompatible with the principle of reciprocity. In the eighteenth century the protection of the natural potestas still rests upon customary rights which lead to a profound imbalance in legal relations. On the legal philosophical level, the paradox just described will not be solved until the Kantian doctrine of law.