The Influence of the Italian Civil Law in Latin-America: The Eightieth Anniversary of the Codice Civile 1942

There are many ways to mark the anniversary of a civil code: one of them is to analyse the cultural messages it has produced, in order to understand not only by whom such messages have been received but also how, when and to what extent. The current volume is based on a dialogue between European (and, in particular, Italian) legal culture on the one hand, and Latin American legal culture on the other. The authors thus approach the question not by merely searching for the extent of the 'Italianness' within the civil codes of Latin America - which represents a culturally sterile and, indeed, methodologically inappropriate exercise - but in order to understand how legal culture in general, and the legal cultures of Latin America in particular, have been and continue to be in active dialogue with the Italian civil code.

Edited by Francesca Benatti, Sergio García, Mauro Grondona and Leysser León Hilario.

Created as a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Italian Civil Code, the current volume presents a theoretical model for a dialogue between Italy and Latin America. With a view to emphasizing the specificity of the contexts where the Italian code initially impacted, even where it did not remain a leading cultural presence, the volume also highlights particular aspect of different legal cultures in Latin America. The book focuses on the civil legal culture that each country has developed over the decades, while underlining individual characteristics, thus providing a sense of autonomy and independence instead of any residual idea of 'cultural imperialism', even indirectly.