Odore di Napoli: What if Jurisprudence Came to us through Smell?

Abstract

Observing the differences between insiders' and outsiders' perceptions of the smells of Naples, we draw parallels with different views of law. Insiders relate to the smells of the city as a complex olfactory web that defines places and regulates time. Outsiders generally privilege the sense of sight over smell, admiring the views while admonishing the inhabitants for the stenches that arise from piles of garbage or filthy habits. Legal outsiders observe regularities in behaviour that indicate the presence of laws. On the other hand, law is also seen as a set of rules to which one must conform (which Hart regards as the insiders' view). Rules and regularities seem inadequate to understand the complex ways Neapolitans negotiate their olfactory and legal environment. They can smell the rotting garbage and the stench of the Camorra, but these are only a background to everyday life and the regular round of meals and seasons, feasts and festivals, that make up their own smellscapes. This takes us beyond the Enlightenment's lines of sight and monolithic view of law to appreciate a Baroque interlegality, inhabited by bodies and experienced in smells. If sight is linked to rules (from the laws of perspective to the rule of recognition), then smell promotes judgment of the sort that Gracián considered necessary to negotiate an ingenious and prudent passage through life.