Pasquale Stanislao Mancini

Pasquale Stanislao Mancini (1817 – 1888) is one of the founders of the italian unity, many times Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Pasquale Stanislao Mancini put the basis of the so called “Italian School of International Law”, whose leading ideas were exposed in his inaugural Lecture at Turin University in 1851. As a consequence of the assumption that the Nation, based upon a unity of culture and Will, is the unique, legitimate foundation of any independent State, Mancini states that every national system of conflict of laws must respect, in the fields of civil law strictly connected with the national identity (personal condition, marriage, family relations, succession in movable and immovable property), that he defines as “necessary Law” not being subject to the parties’ autonomy, the Law of nationality, as a tribute to the Nations’ equal sovereignity. In the Fields where the parties’ autonomy prevail (contractual obligations), the few provisions of the choice of law could be instead accepted. Fundamental rules established in the interest of the Nation – State must always prevail. The application of such rules, derived from general principles of equal dignity of national States, is to be made without any discrimination based on nationality. Citizens and foreigners must be treated on equal footing, without any requirement of reciprocity.A flavour of Mancini thought could also be found in the present Trends of the U.E. uniform private International Law, where it is excluded any discrimination on national basis.