Der Geist des Rechts in Jherings »Geist« und Jherings »Zweck«

Teil 2

Abstract

150 years of glory and respect for two great books like Jhering’s »The Spirit of Roman Law« (1852 sqq.) and »Law as a Means to an End« (1877 sqq.) call for a small celebration in 15 stages. The familiar quotations from Jhering’s vigorous texts on »the last causes of law« are still used in the present debate. See for Ch. 1. to 8.: Rg 5 (2004) 128–149. Notwithstanding this, a view of the rich concrete themes in Spirit and Means amply repays all the effort (Ch. 9. and 10.). Our awareness has to be free of Jhering’s jest in his seriousness and of the deceiving gunpowder smoke of his and his reader’s  conversion (in Ch. 11.). Jhering assumed a double task of jurisprudence on a fairly plain, scarcely original and entirely continuous basis. There was no need for a new juristic religion. His polemics are not important, but his method of creating juristic concepts (Ch. 12.) and his belief in a practical reason, which he justifies in his Means with ethics as a perfect example (Ch. 13.). His jurisprudence engages in a twofold task with new precision, empirical insight and normative judgement (Ch. 14.). And the celebration comes to its conclusion (Ch. 15.).