Caterina Di Costanzo

ABSTRACT Epistemology matters rarely have been deeply analysed within legal studies. The aim of this paper is to investigate, through a historic approach, the existing differences and similarities between methods used by Italian scholars belonging to different Schools of legal thought. The paper, after the analysis of some crucial issues pertaining to the origins of the public legal science in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century , explores the evolution of the Italian public law, from the points of view of the applied methods. Relevant similarities are indentified in the tackling of epistemological problems concerning the relationships between legal order and socio- political order. Moreover, some meaningful connections between social sciences, emerging in the writings of remarkable Italian scholars, are highlighted through an epistemological lens. KEY WORDS: Italian public law, methods, legal order, relationships between social sciences.