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RUDOLF VON JHERING (1818-1892)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 414 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RUDOLF VON See also:JHERING (1818-1892)  , See also:German jurist, was See also:born on the 22nd of See also:August 1818 at See also:Aurich in See also:East See also:Friesland, where his See also:father practised as a lawyer . See also:Young See also:Jhering entered the university of See also:Heidelberg in 1836 and, after the See also:fashion of German students, visited successively See also:Gottingen and See also:Berlin . G . F . See also:Puchta, the author of Geschichte See also:des Rechts bei dem romischen Volke, alone of all his teachers appears to have gained his admiration and influenced the See also:bent of his mind . After graduating See also:doctor See also:juris, Jhering established himself in 1844 at Berlin as privatdocent for See also:Roman See also:law, and delivered public lectures on the Geist des romischen Rechts, the theme which may be said to have constituted his See also:life's See also:work . In 1845 he became an See also:ordinary See also:professor at See also:Basel, in 1846 at See also:Rostock, in 1849 at See also:Kiel, and in 1851 at See also:Giessen . Upon all these seats of learning he See also:left his See also:mark; beyond any other of his contemporaries he animated the dry bones of Roman law . The German juristic See also:world was still under the dominating See also:influence of the See also:Savigny cult, and the older school looked askance at the daring of the young professor, who essayed to 'adapt the old to new exigencies and to build up a See also:system of natural See also:jurisprudence . This is the keynote of his famous work, Geist des romischen Rechts auf den verschiedenen Stufen seiner Entwickelung (1852-1865), which for originality of conception and lucidity of scientific reasoning placed its author in the forefront of See also:modern Roman jurists . It is no exaggeration to say that in the second See also:half of the 19th See also:century the reputation of Jhering was as high as that of Savigny in the first . Their methods were almost diametrically opposed .

Savigny and his school represented the conservative, See also:

historical tendency . In Jhering the philosophical conception of jurisprudence, as a See also:science to be utilized for the further See also:advancement of the moral and social interests of mankind, was predominant . In 1868 Jhering accepted the See also:chair of Roman Law at See also:Vienna, where his lecture-See also:room was crowded, not only with See also:regular students but with men of all professions and even of the highest ranks in the See also:official world . He became one of the lions of society, the See also:Austrian See also:emperor conferring upon him in 1872 a See also:title of hereditary See also:nobility . But to a mind constituted like his, the social functions of the Austrian See also:metropolis became wearisome, and he gladly exchanged its brilliant circles for the repose of Gottingen, where he became professor in 1872 . In this See also:year he had read at Vienna before an admiring See also:audience a lecture, published under the title of Der Kampf um's Recht (1872; Eng. trans., See also:Battle for Right, 1884) . Its success was extraordinary . Within two years it attained twelve See also:editions, and it has been translated into twenty-six See also:languages . This was followed a few years later by Der Zweck See also:im Recht (2 vols., 1877-1883) . In these two See also:works is clearly seen Jhering's individuality . The Kampf See also:urn's Recht shows the firmness of his See also:character, the strength of his sense of See also:justice, and his juristic method and See also:logic: " to assert his rights is the See also:duty that every responsible See also:person owes to himself." In the Zweck im Recht is perceived the bent of the author's See also:intellect . But perhaps the happiest See also:combination of all his distinctive characteristics is to be found in his Jurisprudenz des tdglichen Lebens (187o; Eng. trans., 1904) .

A See also:

great feature of his lectures was his so-called Praktika, problems in Roman law, and a collection of these with hints for See also:solution was published as See also:early as 1847 under the title Civilrechtsfdlle ohne Entscheidungen . In Gottingen he continued to work until his See also:death on the 17th of See also:September 1892 . A See also:short See also:time previously he had been the centre of a devoted See also:crowd of See also:friends and former pupils, assembled at Wilhelmshohe near See also:Cassel to celebrate the See also:jubilee of his doctorate . Almost all countries were worthily represented, and this See also:pilgrimage affords an excellent See also:illustration of the extra-ordinary See also:fascination and enduring influence that Jhering commanded . In See also:appearance he was of See also:middle stature, his See also:face clean-shaven and of classical See also:mould, lit up with vivacity and beaming with See also:good nature, He was perhaps seen at his best when dispensing hospitality in his own See also:house . With him died the best beloved and the most talented of Roman-law professors of modern times . It was said of him by Professor Adolf Merkel in a memorial address, R. v . Jhering (1893), that he belonged to the happy class of persons to whom See also:Goethe's lines are applicable: " Was ich in der Jugend gewunscht, das habe ich im Alter See also:die Fulle," and this may justly be said of him, though he did not live to See also:complete his Geist des romischen Rechts and his Rechtsgeschichte . For this work the span of a single life would have been insufficient, but what he has left to the world is a See also:monument of vigorous intellectual See also:power and stamps Jhering as an See also:original thinker and unrivalled exponent (in his See also:peculiar See also:interpretation) of the spirit of Roman law . Among others of his works, all of them characteristic of the author and sparkling with wit, may be mentioned the following: Beitrdge zur Lehre von Besitz, first published in the Jahrbucher See also:fur die Dogmatik des heutigen romischen and deutschen Privat-rechts, and then separately; Der Besitzwille, and an See also:article entitled " Besitz " in the Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften (1891), which aroused at the time much controversy, particularly on See also:account of the opposition manifested to Savigny's conception of the subject . See also Scherz and See also:Ernst in der Jurisprudenz (1885) ; Das Schuldmoment im romischen Privat-recht (1867) ; Das Trinkgeld (1882) ; and among the papers he left behind him his Vorgeschichte der Indoeuropaer, a fragment, has been published by v . See also:Ehrenberg (1894) .

See for an account of his life also M. de Jonge, See also:

Rudolf v . Jhering (1888) ; and A . Merkel, Rudolf von Jhering (1893) . (P . A .

End of Article: RUDOLF VON JHERING (1818-1892)
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