«L’Ordinamento giuridico» by Santi Romano is a work that, as may be known, has earned its author great success posthumously; however, it should not be forgotten that the book was initially met with silence and much criticism. Today, it is possible to recognize that this work, far from being a contribution of general theory as defined by Romano himself and later, partly so, by Giannini, is a key with which to read historical phenomena steeped in ideological value, and at the same time, a polemic move against the purism of his day. In addition, it is an attempt to draw different areas of public law back to unity, while also making it independent of private law. All these observations explain why this work has always had, for better or for worse, great influence both on numerous Italian scholars and abroad, although it received only a late recognition.