“CRIMEN LAESAE MAIESTATIS” E RESISTENZA LECITA

It is well known that Mario Sbriccoli’s primary aim in Crimen laesae maiestatis (1974) was, as he himself wrote in the Conclusions, "to evaluate the question of political crime in the doctrine of ius commune" by reconstructing, above all, "the moment of the infraction." In analyzing that doctrine, he nevertheless encountered the problem of the distinction between "the rebel and the iuste resistens (the one who justly resists)."

For years, my research has sought to delve deeper into this problem within that same body of ius commune literature. In this book, I revisit several of the case studies I have previously analyzed, the nature of which can be traced back to the broader issue of the relationship between obedience and disobedience, between loyalty and infidelity: at the heart, therefore, of the problem of sovereignty and its limits between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, within the forms and practices of governance.​