Kindredship, Subsidiarity and Grassroots Movements: Catalysts for Effective Legal Change

The article introduces and analyzes “kindredship” – a more inclusive term to identify that has been called “fraternity” throughout modern history – as a necessary ingredient, along with subsidiarity and grassroots movements, to address a range of emergencies, injustices and challenges that threaten democracy, the rule of law, and our very survival as a species. Increasingly, active citizens bring a broad array of problems to the attention of legal institutions at the local, national and global levels. Through multi-stranded synergies, our human-to-human links congeal into mass movements that spur environmental, social justice and human-rights activists to appeal to governments to make institutional changes. In Italy, the constitutional principle of subsidiarity, mirroring that of European law, requires the government to support citizens’ efforts when they promote general interests. Such interests thus gain legitimacy and citizens’ efforts foster reciprocal trust among themselves and with institutional allies, fortifying the democratic values that are essential to our social contract. Without this strengthened interdependence among all stakeholders, the plethora of existing legal norms at every level will remain unable to provide remedies for a vast range of inequities and brewing crises. The article explores comparative-law aspects of how the combined effects of kindredship, subsidiarity and grassroots movements fortify the rule of law. Civic engagement, based on our common humanity and built in the spirit of kindredship, is a key to overcoming the challenges that legal institutions face to defend and bolster democracy, whose inherent fragility requires constant diligence. *