Castronovo e la verità nelle parole del diritto

The essay resumes with in-depth and additions the report at the Conference for the presentation of the volumes “The words of law. Scritti in onore of Carlo Castronovo ”and intends to highlight the most current methodological aspects of the scientific production of this scholar. Far from believing the premises of the juridical discourse uncritically true, he rejects both the positivist postulate of self-sufficiency of the legislative dictate and any form of anti-conceptualism. In this sense, he denies that interpretation can be reduced to a political argumentation, leaving the legal concepts in a vague and indistinct form. In fact, private law is legitimized not by virtue of the contingent will of the legislator, but by the intrinsic rationality of the legal system, as revealed by the work of legal science. The judge can thus respond to the social demands of justice by giving substance to the ethical principle which finds its historical objectification in the laws in force.