Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Elders, J.L.M. --- "Rudolf von Jhering (1818-92) and the economy of justice" [1999] ELECD 39; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781858985169

Section: Chapter 32

Section Title: Rudolf von Jhering (1818-92) and the economy of justice

Author(s): Elders, J.L.M.

Number of pages: 8

Extract:

32 Rudolf von Jhering (1818-92) and the
economy of justice
J.L.M. Elders


Rudolf von Jhering was a German legal scholar who departed from the
dominant legal science of his time. His first writings were still influenced by
the conceptualist jurisprudence in his country, the so-called `Begriffs-
jurisprudenz'. In his main work, Der Zweck im Recht, however, published in
two volumes between 1877 and 1883 and translated into English under the
title `Law as a means to an end', von Jehring developed a social utilitarian
principle, maintaining that purpose in law is as important as cause in the
physical world. While, according to the 19th-century historic school of juris-
prudence, law has to be regarded as a mainly irrational code of conduct, law
was found, not made, and legislation was less important than custom, von
Jhering stressed the fact that man, in order to survive, needs assimilation.
In his famous study about the spirit of Roman law (Geist des romischen
Rechtes) von Jhering defined Roman law as the system of disciplined ego(t)ism,
a concept that was to be developed further in his last work as we will see. The
main thesis in his last study is that purpose has to be regarded as the source of
all law. Therefore, the legal system has to deal with social reality. In this
connection we can also mention the proposition of H.S.A. Hart in his The
Concept o Law (Oxford, 1961), where he says: `Given ...