Un droit sans État

This Paolo Grossi's text invites scholars of medieval legal history to get rid of two notions that the Italian jurist considers “cumbersome” and profoundly alien to the medieval legal experience, namely the notions of “sovereignty” and the “State”. To this end, Grossi contrasts a modern unitary model, in which the sovereign State is the only legitimate instance to legislate, with a medieval pluralist model characterized by a variety of sources, powers, and communities authorized to shape the law. Grossi highlights the analytical value of the notion of “autonomy” in understanding the plurality of medieval legal orders. In doing so, he highlights the idea of a “law without state”, that is fundamentally connected to the social world and expressing it in all its dimensions. The article offers a radical re-reading of medieval political and legal thought.