Rhetoric is useful because truth and justice are stronger than their opposites (Aristotle, Rhetoric I, 1, 1355 a)
Apud bonum iudicem, argumenta plus quam testes valent (Cicero, De re publica I, 38, 59)
[Rhetoric] teaches us to think, to do, to say, true and worthy things (G.B.Vico, Institutiones oratoriae I, 1)
L’art de persuader a un rapport nécessaire à la manière dont les homes consentent à ce qu’on leur propose, et aux conditions des choses qu’on veut faire croire (B.Pascal, Opuscules, VII, sec. II)
CERMEG – Research Centre on Legal Methodology – came into being on the initiative of a group of scholars of the philosophy of law working at universities in north-eastern Italy, the intention being to share experiences in the field of legal reasoning.
The idea of creating a network of scientific collaboration on methodology in legal sciences originated mainly from symposia entitled “Giornate Tridentine di Retorica” (helded in Trento, Department of Legal Sciences, since 2000) and a series of seminars organized in collaboration with the practicing laywers associations (Consiglio Nazionale Forense, Unione delle Camere Penali Italiane) as well as other professionals involved directly (judges and prosecutors) or indirectly (journalists, experts on communication) in application of the law.
Evident in all these cases is the influence of methodological issues on concrete practice in the exercise of justice, and also their markedly interdisciplinary nature, given that they concern the various areas of legal science (jurisprudence, philosophy and history of law, criminal law, civil law, constitutional law, labour law, etc.) as well as broad sectors of non-legal inquiry (logic, epistemology, history of science, literature, sociology, etc.).
For these reasons, after careful assessment of the resources available, it was decided to take the institutional option of creating a research centre – both inter- and extra-university – able to accommodate the contributions of scientists and experts.
“The Centre shall provide a forum for scholars in various disciplines […] who conduct research on legal methodology.
By means of appropriate research instruments, the Centre shall promote the study of the logical procedures constituting legal discourse, with especial regard to their application in trial proceedings, and from an interdisciplinary perspective which combines different areas of expertise in the legal, political and social sciences, literary and artistic studies, the formal sciences, logic and epistemology, and economics.
The Centre may lend its support in the field of postgraduate education and advanced vocational training programmes by providing both teaching resources and specialized consultancy (art.2 – Statutory Purposes).
The CERMEG is represented by a Chairman (art.6) and coordinated by an Executive Board consisting of “associate, interim and full professors, or scholars of recognized scientific merit in the disciplines envisaged by the statutory purposes of the Centro (art.8), and chaired by the Director (art.7). Constituting the indispensable basis for research and study at the Centro are the members of its Scientific Committee, “who make their specific competences freely available” (art.9). Associates of the Centro may be all those interested in the study of method in its various areas of application, in particular the law, and who “participate in the activities of the Centro and subscribe to its nature and purposes” (art.3).
Francesco Cavalla, Titular President
Maurizio Manzin, Chairman
Paolo Moro, Director
Francesca Zanuso, Gianfranco Ferrari, Stefano Fuselli, Paolo Sommaggio, Daniele Velo Dalbrenta, members of the Executive Board
Federico Puppo, Secretary
Scientific Committee:
Giampaolo M. Azzoni
Amedeo G. Conte
Marie-Dominique Couzinet
Emanuele Fragasso jr.
Juan Antonio Garçia Amado
Mario Jori
Alarico Mariani Marini
Dennis Patterson
Ettore Randazzo
Frans H. van Eemeren
CERMEG periodical publishes the results of its research in the volumes of the Acta Methodologica series, Giuffrè, Milan.