The Role of Law, the Role of Reason and Intellectual Property: The Passing of Time and the Sense of the Rules

Abstract

Our times are marked by a continuous loss of credibility of the law in the world and in Europe. Law is one of the major inventions of mankind, and, thanks to the long, clever and wise activity of the Roman culture, it has evolved for more than two millennia as a key pillar of civil coexistence. Even after losing, quite early, the sanctity it had in its initial phase, law has been a real treasure for the European peoples for centuries. And (it is easy to understand why) the need for law increases along with the growth of the world population. Nevertheless, the last decades have seen a comprehensive and troublesome deterioration of the confidence of European people in the Law. A remarkable reduction of the spontaneous compliance with the Law is noticeable everywhere. The causes are numerous, and not all of them are easy to detect. I will mention at least two of them: the rules are too many; and the rules are not always rational and reasonable, so that people cannot easily sympathize with them. I do not know whether, in such a crowded and complicated world, it could be possible to seriously reduce the number of rules. Perhaps not. But it is possible to increase the rationality and the reasonableness of the rules. This is up to us. And this is, in my view, very important. Literature tells us (suffice it to remember the name of Franz Kafka) that compliance with senseless rules is absurd; it is something per se not demandable. Senseless rules call for evasion. Governments, parliaments, academics, cultural élites (if any) should be aware of this. If we lose the law, the coexistence of women and men will be much more difficult. The fallout of bad rules and of bad interpretations of law could be terrible. The world, and Europe, need a project of ''restoration'' of the confidence in the law, a project aiming at reversing the present tendency-a tendency nobody today really cares much about. In all sectors of law, the process of lawmaking, that is the