Teaching International Law during the Italian Unification: a New Discipline for a New State

Abstract

Pasquale Stanislao Mancini and Augusto Pierantoni were not only two of the most important Italian internationalists of the 19th century but also the founders of Italian unity. Pasquale Stanislao Mancini laid 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, Della nazionalià come fondamento del diritto delle genti. Mancini argued that nationality is the fundament of international law. The aim of this article is to investigate the birth of the new and independent discipline, international law, while looking into Italian unification.