Abstract

This article offers an in-depth study of the legal thinking of Guido Fassò - one of the most representative authors in Italian philosophy of law in the second half of the 20th century - for the purpose of analysing the bases on which rests the topicality of his ideas. Apart from playing a significant role in advancing the study of the history of legal thought, where Fassò is considered an international authority, he revitalized the doctrine of natural law through his theory of history as legal experience. In formulating a historical, lay, and liberal natural law, Fassò made a decisive contribution to restoring practical reason and its application to law, and anticipated the debate on the legitimacy of the constitutional legal state and the need to balance the principle of legal certainty with that of justice.