Legal science is one of the main components in
civil law tradition (after
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...
,
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
,
commercial law, and the legacy of the revolutionary period).
Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late nineteenth century, and it evolved naturally out of the ideas of
Friedrich Carl von Savigny
Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian.
Early life and education
Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...
. Savigny argued that German codification should not follow the rationalist and
secular natural law thinking that characterized the French codification but should be based on the principles of law that had historically been in force in Germany. It is referred to as "Rechtswissenschaften" (plural) or "Rechtswissenschaft" (singular) in German.
See also
*
Legal theory
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...
References
Books
*
Black's Law Dictionary, Abridged Seventh Edition, Bryan A. Garner
*
Sabino Cassese
Sabino Cassese (born 20 October 1935) is an Italian Professor of Administrative Law and a former judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy.
Education and career
Cassese graduated (October 1956) ''summa cum laude'' in law from the University o ...
, Recensione a J.H. Merryman, “The Italian Style, Doctrine, Law, Interpretation”, in “Stanford Law Review”, 1965–66, in “Rivista trimestrale di diritto pubblico”, 1966, n. 2, pp. 419–424.
External links
The "Science" of Legal Science: The Model of the Natural Sciences in Nineteenth-Century American Legal Education
Legal education
Philosophy of law
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