Il marginalismo giuridico di Gaetano Filangieri

This work aims at presenting the elements of marginalist analysis which occurin the thought of Gaetano Filangieri. In the pages of La Scienza dellaLegislazione the Neapolitan writer shows the tendency to develop a utilitarianinvestigation which pays attention to the judgements individuals makeover social phenomena at the margin point. A proof of this tendency can befound in the explanation of the principle of decreasing marginal utility,argued in Head XXXI of Book III, which represents one of the most effectivedemonstrations that can be found before the end of XIX century literature. Themost remarkably original fact is that, of all the five parts which compose theFilangierian work, the most rich one in marginalist arguments is dedicated to“Criminal Laws”.This article will point out this and other innovative results of the Filangeriananalysis and will also offer a reconstruction of the economic theory on crimeand punishment presented in La Scienza della Legislazione. Filangieri’s criminaldoctrine represents in fact a significant example on its own of theEnlightenment antecedents of “Law and Economics”, as well as the betterknown contributions made by Beccaria e Bentham