German Legal Doctrine in Historical Perspective
Research Project
Legal doctrine (juristische Dogmatik) is one of the key concepts in modern German jurisprudence. It brings together different aspects of legal knowledge, describing a model of rationality, a technique of representation, a social practice and a field of research all in one term. As a model of rationality, legal doctrine refers to a specific method and technique, such as working with principles, concepts and definitions. It reconstructs applicable legal norms in strictly systematic representations or other forms of ordering. In its social practice, it deals with the relationship between abstract legal principles and concrete legal cases. Finally, legal doctrine as a discipline of legal research combines practical and theoretical ambitions.
The project ‘Legal Doctrine in Historical Perspective’ examines the changes this form of legal thought, as well as the legal knowledge it produced, have undergone, looking at the work of important legal scholars in the history of German private law. These include Thibaut, Savigny and Puchta, Jhering and Windscheid, Gierke, Ehrlich and Heck, Larenz and Esser as well as Wiethölter, Canaris and Teubner. The research is guided by a central hypothesis, namely that there is no such thing as ‘legal doctrine’ as such; we must speak of it in the plural, of legal doctrines. Since 1800, German legal doctrine has undergone numerous metamorphoses. Legal interpretation turned its attention from historical exegesis to the purposes and ends of legal norms. In terms of methodology, it shifted from the (formal) application of rules to the (substantial) balancing of principles. Its sources ranged from the fragments of the Corpus Iuris Civilis to the codification of the German Civil Code and European Directives and Regulations. As an academic discipline, it has always been influenced by historiography, sociology or economics. The project's objective is to reconstruct these historical movements in doctrinal legal thought and knowledge, taking into consideration their legal, academic and socio-political contexts.