LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN FRANCE DURING THE THIRD REPUBLIC. SYNDICALISM, PROFESSIONAL INTERMEDIATE BODIES AND SOCIAL INTERDEPENDENCE IN THE LEGAL THEORY OF LÉON DUGUIT

Abstract

The article aims to analyze some aspects of the thought of Léon Duguit (1859-1928), a key figure in the «sociological current» of legal theory between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and during the phase of fin de siècle crisis. It also intends to reconstruct some periods and passages of the cultural debate at the crossroads between social sciences and legal doctrine that took place in the France of the Third Republic. This essay focuses on some categories and concepts derived from the newborn Durkheimian sociology, used by Duguit to re-found the theory of administrative and constitutional law. In particular, we examine here the notions of trade unionism, professional intermediary bodies and social interdependence, and their function for the redefinition of a modern legal theory according to Duguit.