Diritto, diritti, venalità e moralizzazione: alcune riflessioni sui reati di corruzione nell’Ancien Régime

Abstract: Law, Rights, Venality and Moralization: some Reflections on the Subject Corruption Crimes in the Ancien Régime
The phenomenon of corruption has revealed a challenging historical permanence. The fight against arbitrium and the gradual construction of the modern State, with its bureaucratic and impersonal machine, have failed to prevent the perverse and refined development of corruption, which puts democracy at risk and threatens to turn human rights into a mere proclamation. Legal history – e.g. the gradual definition of crimes (crimen corruptionis) and the venality of offices – can be a powerful instrument for analyzing its deepest roots.