Private Law Theory

Introduction
“Otto von Gierke wrote The Social Role of Private Law (Die soziale Aufgabe des Privatrechts) in an age of extraordinary belief in progress and pride. In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated, Britain’s Royal Navy was required by law to outdo its next two rivals combined, and Germany was forging a massive new Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). Within a year, Kaiser Wilhelm II had dismissed Otto von Bismarck: The old Iron Chancellor, who had unified a ‘Second’ Reich but no longer moved fast enough to secure a ‘place in the sun’ …” (more)

‘Otto von Gierke, The Social Role of Private Law (1889), translated, with an introduction’, by Ewan McGaughey, German Law Journal, volume 19, no 4 (2018).

First posted 2018-08-01 06:10:32