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.CONTENTSI. IntroductionII. Origin of Positive LawIII. Legislative Provisions and Law BooksIV. Roman LawV. Civil Law in GermanyVI. Our Vocation for LegislationVII. The Three New CodesVIII. What we are to do where there are no CodesIX. What is to be done where Codes exist alreadyX. General ObservationsXI. Thibaut's ProposalXII. ConclusionAppendix IAppendix II