ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how the concept of necessity affected the relationship between man and food with regard to the development of legal, ethical and social rules. Employing perspectives developed in sociology and legal anthropology, a comparative analysis is carried out for the purpose of depicting how the organization of food supplying, production and consumption directly shaped modern legal concepts both in public and private law, while also leading to the development of social hierarchies and multi-level, customary relationships, thus paving the way to the “creation” of legal frameworks of rules. Necessities concerning food have always affected the interhuman relations transversally between law, religion and politics, often representing the jointure link of such elements. Food rules and habits constituted a relevant part of liturgies and political campaigns, thus also leading to the development of specific legal rules designed to serve those set of ideas. On the basis of such relations, food necessities also contributed to defining the boundaries between “equal” and “unequal” law, by enacting, implementing and enforcing legal rules differently depending on the circumstances pertaining both to food as a product itself and to the methods of its production and distribution.
