Abstract

It is largely held by lawyers that the idea of a link between law and nature of things is part of a disreputable strand of legal thought, and that its errors can be easily shown. In this paper I try to examine this view focusing on the use of the concept of «nature of things» displayed in the work of Cesare Vivante, an Italian scholar of commercial law. My conclusion is that an accurate refusal of a legal method as Vivante's would require some sophisticated arguments; therefore that method cannot be discharged as patently wrong, but, rather, one should dispute the conception of law and of social reality that this method implies.