Gustav Hugo (23 November 1764 – 15 September 1844) was a German jurist.

Biography

Hugo was born at

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including t ...

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

. From the gymnasium at

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

he passed in 1782 to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, 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

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

in 1788. Recalled in the same year to Göttingen as extraordinary professor of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, he became a full professor in 1792. In the preface to his ''Beiträge zur civilistischen Bucherkenntniss der letzten vierzig Jahre'' (1828–1829) he gives a sketch of the condition of the civil law teaching at Göttingen at that time. The

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and German elements of the existing law were, without criticism or differentiation, welded into an ostensible whole for practical needs, with the result that it was difficult to say whether historical truth or practical ends were most prejudiced. As it was passed from person to person, new errors crept in, and even the best of teachers could not escape from the false method which had become traditional. These were the evils which Hugo set himself to combat, and he became the founder of the

German Historical School :''This is an article about a school of thought in the area of law. For economics, see historical school of economics.'' The German Historical School of Jurisprudence is a 19th-century intellectual movement in the study of German law. With Romant ...

jurisprudence 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 a ...

which was continued and further developed by Savigny. His magna opera are the ''Lehrbuch eines civilistischen Cursus'' (7 vols., 1792–1821), in which his method is thoroughly worked out, and ''Civilistisches Magazin'' (6 vols., 1790–1837). Hugo was criticized, and ridiculed, by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

in the ''

Rheinische Zeitung The ''Rheinische Zeitung'' ("Rhenish Newspaper") was a 19th-century German newspaper, edited most famously by Karl Marx. The paper was launched in January 1842 and terminated by Prussian state censorship in March 1843. The paper was eventually su ...

'' for justifying the "law of arbitrary power", that is, for endorsing societal injustice and exploitation simply because the institutions which generate them exist.

Publications

Major publications of Gustav Hugo include: * * * * * * * * * * *

References

* * Gabor Hamza, "Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Privatrechtsordnungen und die römischrechtliche Tradition" (Budapest, 2009) pp. 189–192. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hugo, Gustav 1764 births 1844 deaths People from Lörrach Jurists from Baden-Württemberg University of Göttingen alumni University of Halle alumni University of Göttingen faculty