Norberto Bobbio, Theorist of Law and Democracy

Assuming Norberto Bobbio's complex character, which melted the jurist and the political philosopher who moved between different disciplines and their theoretical frameworks, the essay provides a critical insight into the relationship between the rules of democracy and the conditions of validity of legal norms, pointing out the inconsistency between a purely formal conception of democracy and the substantial feature of the constitutional regimes established after the II World War. Therefore, while the distinction between what the law is and what it ought to be is maintained as a main foundation of a laic State, a substantial conception of democracy and law is reasserted, looking at the degree of normative guarantees and their effectuality.