Processo e cultura giuridica = Procedure and Legal Culture: Scritti per gli 80 anni di Vincenzo Varano
Files
Description
We are honored to join this celebration of our friend and colleague Professor Vincenzo Varano. As U.S.-trained lawyers who specialize in civil procedure, federal jurisdiction, and constitutional law, we unquestionably owe an intellectual debt to Varano, whose scholarship on civil procedure and comparative law has played a critical role in introducing English-speaking lawyers to the intricacies of the Italian legal system. Varano’s work on this project has been no easy task. To be sure, every legal system is somewhat unique in terms of its history, structure, and motivating values; the U.S. system even claims to be “exceptional.” But the Italian system is particularly difficult for an outsider to navigate. The reasons are many: One such difficulty—which we will discuss later in this tribute—is the system’s pervasive reliance on “extraordinary” and “special” proceedings that complement but also overlap with the general proceeding. Providing a clear and comprehensive overview of the interlocking relationship of these different proceedings is an achievement in itself. As is known, Mauro Capelletti, Varano’s mentor, worked in the 1960s with two U.S. law professors to produce The Italian Legal System: An Introduction, aiming to “open the way to the study of Italian law and, through it, the civil law system.” This earlier account was for years regarded as the “most complete description in English of the Italian system of procedure,” presenting Italian law from the internal perspective “of theories and positions advanced by Italian jurists.” Varano’s later English-language writing on the subject, especially on Italian procedural reform after the 1990s, was no mere update of his mentor’s work. In particular, Varano brought to the surface the dynamic tensions and cross-currents in Italian law, combining fastidious description with trenchant criticism, as well as a realistic assessment of possibilities for reform. His articles, addressed to a global community of scholars, refused to treat Italian procedure as simply a way to understand the civil law (a skepticism shared by Cappelletti). While fully knowledgeable of the Italian system’s civil law roots, Varano interrogated the conventional binary distinction between inquisitorial and adversarial systems that had long marked comparative scholarship. Varano’s writings about Italian procedure were not mechanical lessons in rules of practice. Rather, they provided conceptual expression of his own special comparative method, which aimed, as he put it, at “facilitating the communication between lawyers belonging to different legal traditions.” In that vein, Varano consistently reminded English-speaking law students of the need to become and to remain sensitive to the difficulties of translating legal terms and judicial processes from one language and culture to another. Varano also brought exemplary administrative skills to his work as a procedural and comparative scholar, which further elevated his importance among U.S. and other English-speaking scholars. Throughout his career, Varano encouraged the expansion of intellectual engagement beyond the written word so that it embraced conversation, discussion, and face-to-face exchange. These sites of intellectual discourse required institutional structure and organizational support, and Varano made clear their significance in his work as a university administrator. During the early 1990s Varano served as Dean of the University of Florence Law School, and later assumed the mantle of Director of its Ph.D. program in Comparative Law. He was a member of the steering committee of the Italian Association of Comparative Law (1981-2001), an elected member of the American Law Institute, and a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. As an administrator, Enzo created what his colleague Remo Caponi in a related context has called “transnational spaces of communication among legal practitioners, judges, and academics.” From our side of the Atlantic, Varano played a critical role in organizing and participating in conferences and associations that brought together civil procedure scholars from diverse national backgrounds and from common law as well as civil law systems. Helen fondly remembers her first encounter with Enzo at a conference on comparative law hosted by New York University at La Pietra, in Florence, which was followed by an elegant reception in Enzo’s home, attended by procedural scholars of varied backgrounds joined together by prosecco and conversation. Varano’s administrative undertakings, as with his scholarly writing, reflected a deep commitment to engaging scholars from diverse legal systems in order to devise solutions to urgent problems of injustice. Academic research for Enzo was not a matter of ivory tower contemplation, but rather part of a scientific project of reform that aimed at the development of sound policy. In his concluding remarks at the 2003 conference organized in honor of Capelletti, Enzo urged a stance of pragmatic flexibility; he offered a spirited rejection of the trans-substantive concept of “the same model of procedure rigidly con- ceived as applicable in every case,” and instead encouraged devising procedural reforms that would promote “an effective interaction among the various actors . . . assuring that the management of the case be proportionate to its peculiarities.” Finally, as U.S. scholars we are indebted to Varano for his unbounded devotion to teaching and mentoring. Meeting Enzo and Serena for dinner at a Florentine restaurant inevitably resulted in chance encounters with his former students, their spouses, and their children, replete with questions about a latest project and enthusiastic words of encouragement. No one can doubt that Enzo has been a constant source of support and inspiration for his students; the next generation of comparative law scholars in Italy as well as in the United States has benefited not simply from his example but also from his attention. Not surprisingly, his students have taken the lead in producing scholarship at a high intellectual level, sharing with their mentor a desire to nourish and to sustain international discussion. Whether in the area of Italian procedure or comparative constitutional law, Enzo’s influence has been manifest and broad, illustrated by the magnificent achievements of the three professors responsible for organizing this tribute.
Source Publication
Legal Culture, Optimal Delay, and Social Commitments: A Tribute to Vincenzo Varano
Source Editors/Authors
Vittoria Barsotti, Alessandro Simoni
Publication Date
2020
Recommended Citation
Hershkoff, Helen and Loffredo, Stephen, "Processo e cultura giuridica = Procedure and Legal Culture: Scritti per gli 80 anni di Vincenzo Varano" (2020). Faculty Chapters. 776.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/776
