Summary - Giuseppe Capograssi (1889-1956) was an important legal philosopher and had a lively influence on the development of legal studies. Th centre of his reflections lay in his many investigations into the concept of experience, which aimed to supersede the prevalent orientation in Italy, focussed on vertexes, emphasizing instead the importance of practices, both on the theoretical level and in the analysis of legal activity and political reality. Capograssi therefore paid great attention to the relationship between state and society viewed in a dynamic and pluralist perspective. No less illuminating are Capograssi's investigations into the value of the constitution and the principle of legality. During the Fascist period, Capograssi upheld the values of individual liberty and democratic principles, seeing as indispensable the continual involvement of citizens in the development of political action. This perspective played a further, particularly important role in the "ideas of Capograssi", after the war and the advent of the republican legal order. According to Capograssi, more space needed to be given to social life and to the spiritual links on which political community is based. In this sense, Capograssi found the teachings of Catholicism fundamental. His Catholicism placed great emphasis on freedom and solidarity and contained a lively, underlying sense of the cultural and spiritual, inspired by the ideal of "charity".