The
German Historical School of Law is a 19th century intellectual movement in the study of German law. With Romanticism as its background, it emphasized the historical limitations of the law. It stood in opposition to an earlier movement called
Vernunftsrecht (Natural Law).
The Historical School is based on the writings and teaching of
Gustav HugoGustav von Hugo was a German jurist.He was born at Lörrach in Baden. From the gymnasium at Karlsruhe he passed in 1782 to the University of Göttingen, where he studied law for three years. Having received the appointment of tutor to the prince of Anhalt-Dessau, he took his doctor's degree at the...
and especially
Friedrich Carl von SavignyFriedrich Carl von Savigny was one of the most respected and influential 19th-century jurists.-Early life and education:...
.
Natural lawNatural law or the law of nature is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. The phrase natural law is opposed to the positive law of a given political community, society, or nation-state, and thus can function as a...
yers held that law could be discovered only by rational deduction from the nature of man.
The basis premise of the German Historical School is that law is not to be regarded as an arbitrary grouping of regulations laid down by some authority.
The
German Historical School of Law is a 19th century intellectual movement in the study of German law. With Romanticism as its background, it emphasized the historical limitations of the law. It stood in opposition to an earlier movement called
Vernunftsrecht (Natural Law).
The Historical School is based on the writings and teaching of
Gustav HugoGustav von Hugo was a German jurist.He was born at Lörrach in Baden. From the gymnasium at Karlsruhe he passed in 1782 to the University of Göttingen, where he studied law for three years. Having received the appointment of tutor to the prince of Anhalt-Dessau, he took his doctor's degree at the...
and especially
Friedrich Carl von SavignyFriedrich Carl von Savigny was one of the most respected and influential 19th-century jurists.-Early life and education:...
.
Natural lawNatural law or the law of nature is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. The phrase natural law is opposed to the positive law of a given political community, society, or nation-state, and thus can function as a...
yers held that law could be discovered only by rational deduction from the nature of man.
The basis premise of the German Historical School is that law is not to be regarded as an arbitrary grouping of regulations laid down by some authority. Rather, those regulations are to be seen as the expression of the convictions of the people, in the same manner as language, customs and practices are expressions of the people. The law is grounded in a form of popular consciousness called the
Volksgeist.
Laws can stem from regulations by the authorities, but more commonly they evolve in an organic manner over time without interference from the authorities. The ever-changing practical needs of the people play a very important role in this continual organic development.
In the development of a legal system, is it the professional duty of lawyers – in the sense of the division of labor in society – to base their academic work on law on ascertaining the will of the people. In this way, lawyers embody the popular will.
The German Historical School was divided into Romanists and the Germanists. The Romantists, to whom Savigny also belonged, held that the
Volksgeist springs from the reception of the
Roman lawThe term Roman law denotes the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the seventh century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the official lingua franca. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence —...
. While the Germanists (
Karl Friedrich EichhornKarl Friedrich Eichhorn was a German jurist.Eichhorn was born in Jena as the son of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. He entered the University of Göttingen in 1797. In 1805 he obtained the professorship of law at Frankfurt , holding it till 1811, when he accepted the same chair at the new Friedrich...
, Jakob Grimm,
Georg BeselerCarl Georg Christoph Beseler was a Prussian jurist and politician.Beseler studied law at Kiel and Munich. He was forbidden to teach law in Kiel in 1833 due to his political activity, but he lectured at Göttingen, and Heidelberg...
,
Otto von GierkeOtto Friedrich von Gierke was a German historian. He was born in Stettin , Pomerania, and died in Berlin....
) saw medieval German Law as the expression of the German
Volksgeist.
The German Historical School has had considerable influence on the academic study of law in Germany.
Georg Friedrich PuchtaGeorg Friedrich Puchta was a German jurist.Born at Kadolzburg in Bavaria, he came of an old Bohemian Protestant family which had immigrated into Germany to avoid religious persecution. His father, Wolfgang Heinrich Puchta , a legal writer and district judge, imbued his son with legal conceptions...
and
Bernhard WindscheidBernhard Windscheid was a German jurist and a member of the pandectistic school of law thought...
continued the Romanist vein founded by Savigny, leading to the so called
Pandektenwissenschaft which is seen as
Begriffsjurisprudenz (conceptual jurisprudence).