The Pandectists were German university legal scholars in the early 19th century who studied and taught
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I.
Roman law also den ...
as a model of what they called ''Konstruktionsjurisprudenz'' (conceptual jurisprudence) as codified in the
Pandects
The ''Digest'' (), also known as the Pandects (; , , "All-Containing"), was a compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 530–533 AD. It is divided into 50 books.
The ''Dige ...
of
Justinian
Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
(Berman).
Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Pandectists were attacked in arguments by noted jurists
Julius Hermann von Kirchmann
Julius may refer to:
People
* Julius (name), a masculine given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name)
* Julius (nomen), the name of a Roman family (includes a list of Ancient Romans with the name)
** Julius Caesar (100– ...
and
Rudolf von Jhering
Caspar Rudolph Ritter von Jhering (; also Ihering; 22 August 1818 – 17 September 1892) was a German jurist. He is best known for his 1872 book ''Der Kampf ums Recht'' (''The Struggle for Law''), as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a mo ...
, who favored a modern approach of law as a practical means to an end (Weber).
In the United States,
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Cou ...
and other legal realists pushed for laws based on what judges and the courts actually did, rather than the historical and conceptual or academic law 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 ...
and the Pandectists (Rosenberg).
See also
*
Corpus Juris Civilis
The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...
*
Law of Germany
The law of Germany (), that being the modern German legal system (), is a system of civil law (legal system), civil law which is founded on the principles laid out by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, though many of the most im ...
*
Civil code
A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations.
A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...
*
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I.
Roman law also den ...
References
* ''Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition'' Harold J. Berman, Harvard, 1983
* ''On Charisma and Institution Building'' Max Weber, U. Chicago, 1968
* ''The Hidden Holmes: His Theory of Torts in History'' David Rosenberg, Harvard, 1996
External links
*
Civil Law Codification in the German-Speaking States of Northern and Central Europe
p
Roman law
Legal history of Germany
Philosophy of law
{{Germany-law-stub