Feudalism Vs Feudalization

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While the feudal system did not disappear for some 30 years after unification, both feudalism and a more modern-day rule of law would always be subject to interpretation. Legal scholar and philosopher Dennis Patterson concisely points out there are two prevailing camps standing at opposites: Those who argue that the interpretation of law is solely objective versus those who see it in terms of subjectivity (671). Assuming that passions during the time of Sicily’s turbulent unification were predicated more on subjectivity than objectivity, it becomes understandable that Don Fabrizio was caught in a historical trajectory not of his own choosing.
Unification established a new order as well as a convoluted manner by which the law was carried out. The new professional magistrate was typically comprised of former Sicilian nobles who sided with moneyed interests and could not be bothered with the notion of “blind justice.” (Lupo 34) It was left to the police, or gendarmerie, which were seemingly incapable of maneuvering among a range of divergent groups, factions, bandits as well as promine...

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