ABSTRACT
Introduction Although its initial meaning, derived from the Latin reformare, was ‘to bring back to the original condition’, the verb to reform is actually used in the sense of ‘making changes in an institution or practice in order to improve it’. This is what the reform advocated by Schmitt, mainly in his 1984 volume and in his unpublished manuscript of 1998, is all about (Schmitt 1984a and 1998a, respectively).
