Stato, persone collettive e diritto sociale. L'ordine plurale di Otto von Gierke

Otto von Gierke (1841-1921) is commonly considered the jurist who laid the foundation for legal pluralism in Europe and America. In this contribution I analyse some of his works in order to identify the pluralistic elements of his legal thought. I concentrate first of all on the studies he devoted to the history of German associations aiming to find solutions to the political and social problems of his time. In later works he supported the idea that the state had the same nature as other associations and therefore was not separated from the organic community of the people. Consequently, according to Gierke, public law did not coincide exclusively with the law of the state, but was only one of the many forms of the law produced by the whole society (Sozialrecht).