Of the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence

The Book That Launched the German Historical School of Jurisprudence. Written in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Vocation proposed a common legal code for the newly liberated German states and attacked Thibaut's advocacy of a code based on natural law. Though he aimed in part to improve the administration of justice, Savigny hoped that a common legal system would promote a larger goal: a spirit of unity among Germans. Frederick Carl von Savigny [1779-1861] was an important German jurist and scholar of Roman law. A principal member of the historical school of jurisprudence, he had a keen interest in its role in the subsequent development of European law. He is known for the influential Von Savigny's Treatise on Possession; Or the Jus Possessionis of the Civil Law (1803) and his System of Modern Roman Law (1840-1849), an eight-volume study of contemporary legal systems derived on Roman law. CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Origin of Positive Law III. Legislative Provisions and Law Books IV. Roman Law V. Civil Law in Germany VI. Our Vocation for Legislation VII. The Three New Codes VIII. What we are to do where there are no Codes IX. What is to be done where Codes exist already X. General Observations XI. Thibaut's Proposal XII. Conclusion Appendix I Appendix II