From law to power: the main plot of Norberto Bobbio's work

The author holds that the central thread in the vast work of N. Bobbio consists of philosophy of law and political philosophy, two main lines which can also be seen as a single one. The features of this thread are shown in two different stages: the first consists in describing the close relationship which according to Bobbio exists between legal philosophy and political philosophy in his methodological proposal on the thematic structure of each of these fields; and, the second, in synthesizing the features of his theoretical contribution on the subject of the core contents of both disciplines: law and power. Between one stage and the next a brief comparison is made between Bobbio's conceptions and some other contemporary theories and the article finishes with some reflections concerning the tension of his "enlightening" or enlightened realism.