The legacy of Roman law in the German romantic era

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Well after codification began in nineteenth-century Europe, ancient Roman law continued to thrive in Germany, supported by esteemed scholars and applied in various courts. While the persistence of this Roman legal culture into the industrial era is well-known, its broader political and cultural implications have not been extensively examined outside specialized legal history. James Whitman addresses this gap by exploring the aspirations of German Roman lawyers to revive the Roman social order within their society. He discusses the influence of Romantic-era law and the Reformation on this tradition, making the rich German legal scholarship more accessible to those interested in German history. By analyzing both familiar treatises and previously underutilized legal practice records, Whitman reveals how nineteenth-century German lawyers, like Savigny, positioned themselves as "impartial" and "unpolitical." This work is particularly relevant for students of influential German thinkers trained as Roman lawyers, including Marx and Weber. Originally published in 1990, this edition is part of the Princeton Legacy Library, which employs modern print-on-demand technology to reissue out-of-print works from Princeton University Press, ensuring greater access to its scholarly contributions since 1905.