Emilio Betti (also known as "Italian Alexander Akatov") (

Camerino Camerino is a town in the province of Macerata, Marche, central-eastern Italy. It is located in the Apennines bordering Umbria, between the valleys of the rivers Potenza and Chienti, about from Ancona. Camerino is home to the University of Ca ...

, 20 August 1890 – Camorciano di Camerino, 11 August 1968) was an Italian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

Roman Law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

scholar,

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

. He is best known for his contributions to

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

, part of a broad interest in interpretation. As a legal theorist, Betti is close to interpretivism. Betti's intellectual support of

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

between the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the beginning of the 1920s led him to be arrested in 1944, in Camerino. Betti remained in prison for about a month, as decided by the

Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale The National Liberation Committee (, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationist forces of the ...

. In August 1945, Betti was presented to the court and absolved of every accusation. His political choices, anyway, have not diminished the value and importance of his work. Among many other things, Betti was one of the members of the drafting commission for the Italian

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

of 1942. Betti is perhaps best known for his work in

. He took issue with the hermeneutic views of Hans Georg Gadamer and argued that interpreters should attempt to reconstruct the author's intentions. His work influenced the work of E. D. Hirsch, the chief English-language spokesman for authorial intention. However, his influence in English has been limited by the lack of translations of his hermeneutic work.

Major works

Betti was a prolific writer. This is just a small part of his works: *''Sulla opposizione dell'exceptio sull'actio e sulla concorrenza tra loro'' (1913). *''La vendicatio romana primitiva e il suo svolgimento storico nel diritto privato e nel processo'' (1915). *''L'antitesi storica tra iudicare (pronuntiatio) e damnare (condemnatio) nello svolgimento del processo romano'' (1915). *''Studii sulla litis aestimatio del processo civile romano'': I Pavia (1915), III (Camerino, 1919). *''Sul valore dogmatico della categoria contahere in giuristi proculiani e sabiniani'' (1916). *''La restaurazione sullana e il suo esito (Contributo allo studio della crisi della costituzione repubblicana in Roma)'' (1916). *''La struttura dell'obbligazione romana e il problema della sua genesi'' (1919). *''Il concetto della obbligazione costruito dal punto di vista dell'azione'' (1920). *''Trattato dei limiti soggettivi della cosa giudicata in diritto romano'' (1922). *''La tradizione nel diritto romano classico e giustinianeo'' (1924–25). *''Esercitazioni romanistiche su casi pratici: I, anormalità del negozio giuridico'' (1930). *''Diritto romano: parte generale'' (1935). *''Teoria generale del negozio giuridico'' (1943). *''Teoria generale delle obbligazioni'' (1953–1955). *''Teoria generale della interpretazione'' (1955–1960). *''Teoria delle obbligazioni in diritto romano'' (1956). *''Teoria generale della interpretazione'' (1955–1960). *''Attualità di una teoria generale dell'interpretazione'' (1967).

References and further reading

* Ciocchetti, Mario (1998). ''Emilio Betti, Giureconsulto e umanista''. Belforte del Chienti. *Pressler, Charles and Dasilva Fabio (1996). ''Sociology and Interpretation From Weber to Habemas.'' State University of New York Press. 1890 births 1968 deaths Hermeneutists 20th-century Italian jurists 20th-century Italian philosophers Italian fascists People from Camerino {{Italy-law-bio-stub