Abstract

The starting point of the author's reflection is his reading of two recent publications, the first being P. Barcellona, "Le passioni negate. Globalismo e diritti umani", Troina (Enna), Città aperta, 2001; and the second, introduced by the same Barcellona, being "Nuove frontiere del diritto. Dialoghi su giustizia e verità", Bari, Dedalo, 2001. The author's thought revolves around the relations between and among the normative world and technique, desire, salvation, the representation of sorrow, community and communication and democracy, which constitute the different parts of a single treatment, made possible including owing to the knowledge that every author has benefited from the contributions of others. The most painful problems of our juridical and social experience are involved, which at bottom are concentrated around the question of whether, in meeting the challenge posed by the infinite emptiness of purpose in relation to technique, to desire, to communication and to democracy (and not only to them), formal modern law, for all its perfection, suffices, and whether it is possible to think of "curing" a phenomenon such as the crisis of contemporary civilisation with the technique of legal formalism.