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Bruno Leoni (26 April 1913, Ancona – 21 November 1967, Turin) was an Italian classical-liberal political philosopher and lawyer.
Besides being editor for the political science journal Il Politico, Leoni was also involved as secretary and later president of the Mont Pelerin Society. He taught at the University of Pavia from 1942 until his death.
A well-known book of his is Freedom and the Law, published in English in 1961. In this work he points out the importance of the historical law (Roman jus civile and English common law) and he is very critical towards modern legislation and the idea that law can be the simple outcome of a political decision. Another important contribution of Leoni to the legal thought is his theory about the law as individual claim (he presents this idea in many articles and essays).
Following Richard Posner, Leoni has been also one of the fathers of the Law and Economics school.
Leoni was murdered by Osvaldo Quero in 1967.
Works
- English
- Bruno Leoni, 'Freedom and the Law, New York, Nostrand, 1961 Freedom and the Law; PDF version
- Bruno Leoni, Law, Liberty and the Competitive Market, edited by Carlo Lottieri, with a preface by Richard A. Epstein, New Brunswick NJ, Transaction, 2008.
- Bruno Leoni, "The scientific demonstration", with Introduction of Adriano Gianturco Gulisano. Procesos de Mercado, Vol. 6, n° 2, 2009, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, pp. 291-301.
- Italian
- Bruno Leoni, Scritti di scienza politica e teoria del diritto, Introduction by M. Stoppino, Milano, Giuffrè, 1980.
- Bruno Leoni, Le pretese e i poteri: le radici individuali del diritto e della politica, Introduction by Mario Stoppino, Milano, Società Aperta, 1997.
- Bruno Leoni, La sovranità del consumatore, Introduzione di Sergio Ricossa, Roma, Ideazione, 1997.
- Bruno Leoni, Lezioni di filosofia del diritto (ed Carlo Lottieri) Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2003 (1959).
- Bruno Leoni, La libertà del lavoro (ed. Carlo Lottieri) IBL “Diritto, Mercato, Libertà”, Treviglio – Soveria Mannelli, Leonardo Facco – Rubbettino, 2004.
- Bruno Leoni, Il diritto come pretesa (ed Antonio Masala), Introduction by Mauro Barberis, Macerata, Liberilibri, 2004.
- Bruno Leoni, Lezioni di dottrina dello Stato (eds Raffaele De Mucci and Lorenzo Infantino) Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2004 (1957)
- Bruno Leoni, Il pensiero politico moderno e contemporaneo (ed Antonio Masala), Introduction by Luigi Marco Bassani, Macerata, Liberilibri, 2009.
