The General State Laws for the Prussian States (german: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten, ALR) were an important

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

, promulgated in 1792 and codified by Carl Gottlieb Svarez and Ernst Ferdinand Klein, under the orders of Frederick II. The code had over 17,000 articles, and covered fields of civil law,

penal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law ...

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriage ...

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as " regulations"), ...

etc.

History

Development

Cocceji, Samuel von – Project des Corporis Juris Fridericiani, 1752 – BEIC 14430789

Frederick I of Prussia Frederick I (german: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function h ...

wanted to create a uniform set of laws, but it was not started until the reign of Frederick II. Frederick's idea was not only to create a unified set of laws, but to make them clear and eliminate possible manipulations by different interpretation. A previous attempt, ''Project eines Corporis Juris Fridericiani'' (1749–51), by

Samuel von Cocceji Samuel Freiherr von Cocceji (pronounced ''kok-'tse-yi'') (20 October 1679 – 4 October 1755) was a German official from the Electorate of the Palatinate who served Brandenburg-Prussia. He was the son of Heinrich von Cocceji. Cocceji was born ...

, proved unsuccessful. The first version was called the ''General Code for the Prussian states'' (german: Allgemeines Gesetzbuch für die Preußischen Staaten, AGB, 1792). Svarez and Klein, who were under the orders of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

, presented a project in 1785, but the general state laws for the Prussian states were finally codified in 1794. Frederick had recently overruled his judiciary who had ruled against the millers Arnold in the

Miller Arnold case The Miller Arnold case () is a landmark 18th-century German court case and cause célèbre during the reign of Frederick II that raised issues relating to the concept of judicial independence. It is an example of the ' () of Frederick ...

, imprisoning judges who had disobeyed his orders. As a figure keen to maintain his prestige as an Enlightened Absolutist, codification of the laws was a desirable response to his un-Enlightened break of the 'rule of law'.

Usage

The interpretations of the code's usage are contradictory; some interpret the laws as well known for being simple to read and interpret, without much abstract, being rather an every-day regulating laws, but others point out that while the code was written in German, it used an incredibly

casuistic In ethics, casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending theoretical rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ...

and imprecise language, making it hard to properly understand and use in practice. After the

second partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian W ...

, it was promulgated on the annexed territories as subsidiary law, intended to accelerate the process of their integration with

. The Landrecht was a typical example of a law of the transition period between

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structu ...

and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

, where old institutions of feudal law (ordinations, separate property, class divisions,

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

privileges, subjection of peasants) existed alongside modern ones (definition of property). The Landrecht stopped functioning after the system was reformed ( Stein–Hardenberg reforms) and the feudal remnants were removed.

References

External links

* German full text: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten (01.06.1794)
Einleitung (Introduction)Erster Theil (I. Part)Zweyter Theil (II. Part)
on
OpinioIuris: Die freie juristische Bibliothek
retrieved on 3 March 2013.

retrieved on 3 March 2013. {{Authority control Civil codes Prussian law 18th century in Prussia 1790s establishments in Prussia