"It is an unusually good read," said the external reviewer, Professor Siri Gloppen of the University of Bergen, about Nicoli Aldini’s dissertation Legal and Lethal: Lawfare and Legal Mobilization in the Conflict over the Steel Plant of Taranto, Italy. "It is theoretically ambitious, intellectually rigorous, and it is a page turner. It makes significant contributions to socio-legal scholarship and legal mobilisation studies."
This thesis examines the long-running conflict around the Ilva steel plant in the Southern Italian city of Taranto. Since the 1960s, the plant has driven economic growth while also causing severe pollution, with serious consequences for public health.
The study shows how this conflict has been fought both on the streets and through the courts. While the Italian government has used legal tools to protect economic interests tied to the plant, local communities and activists have engaged in sustained legal mobilisation, bringing cases in domestic and European courts to demand environmental protection and accountability. These efforts have led to important legal victories, even if their impact has often been limited or rolled back.
By analysing this struggle, the thesis highlights how law can be both a tool for change and a mechanism of control. It introduces new ways of understanding “lawfare” and offers a nuanced view of the possibilities—and limits—of using legal systems to drive social change.
A timely and thought-provoking contribution on the relationship between law, power, justice, and pecorino cheese.
