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On the German History of Method in Civil Law in Five Systems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
Abstract
Germany is the country of legal methodology. No other country saw such an intense academic discourse on the question of what jurists are able, allowed, and supposed to do when interpreting and applying the law. This German peculiarity is tightly linked to the history of the German Civil Code (BGB). Carefully worded and systematically precise, this codification had the potential to significantly limit judicial freedom; thus, its advent marked the beginning of the German methodological debates. The following Article examines this relationship, starting with the year 1874 (when preliminary work on the Civil Code began) and continuing with an analysis of the five political systems during which the BGB was in force: the German Empire (1900–1914), the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), the National Socialist period (1933–1945), the GDR (1949–1989), and the Federal Republic (1949–today). With the exception of the GDR, the methodological debates consistently show attempts to enable judges to adapt the law to real life conditions, or to political ideas in conflict with the BGB, without formally moving beyond extant law. At the roots of 20th century methodological debates, one can thus discern a profound mistrust of German legal academia with regard to both the legislature and the judiciary. Jurists had no confidence in the BGB, which was criticized for being inflexible, outdated, and politically unsound. They did not trust in the freedom of judges either, trying instead to somehow bind them, be it to “life,” “reality,” “justice,” “sense of justice,” “national order,” or “Christian Natural Law.” It was not until 1958 that the Federal Constitutional Court was entrusted with the task of dynamically shaping the guiding values of society, thus forcing both the legislator and the courts to adapt the BGB to these principles. As a consequence, the heyday of German methodological debates surrounding the BGB slowly came to an end.
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References
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141 Heinrich Lange, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 208–09, 250 (1943), quoted in Heinrich Lehmann, in Volksgesetzbuch, supra note 109, at 662.Google Scholar
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144 Apart from his commentaries on the work of the Academy, Esser exerted his influence mainly through his book Josef Esser, Grundlagen und Entwicklung der Gefährdungshaftung (1941), in which he openly advocated a “reconstruction of our private law, id. at 1, 4 (preface).” Cf. Esser, supra note 110.Google Scholar
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148 Id. at 191–204.Google Scholar
149 Overview in Schröder, supra note 8, at 250–57.Google Scholar
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152 See, for example, Phillip Heck, who wanted to build a system based on decisions of conflicts and who avoided the term “principle” which, to him, embodied a conflation of norms and values. Phillip Heck, Begriffsbildung und Interessenjurisprudenz 58 (1932). This was also criticized by Claus-Wilhelm Canaris, Systemdenken und Systembegriff in der Jurisprudenz 38 (2d ed. 1983); cf. Marietta Auer, Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht 517–33 (2008). On the general issue, see Schoppmeyer, Heinrich, Juristische Methode als Lebensaufgabe: Leben, Wirken und Wirkungsgeschichte Philipp Hecks (2001); Schröder, supra note 8, at 420–22, doesn't mention principles in the Wei mar debates either.Google Scholar
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154 Karl Larenz, Lehrbuch zum Allgemeinen Teil des Deutschen Bürgerlichen Rechts V (1967): The aim was to facilitate an understanding of positive law, to lay bare its innermost structure, by drawing attention to its basic principles. Naturally, it [a textbook for educational purposes] can only achieve this if it doesn't use positive law as its point of departure. It needs to be grounded in legal philosophy but it must always refer back to the law currently in force.Google Scholar
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157 Wilburg himself did not use the term principle, which he seems to have considered as non-conducive to evaluation. His disciple Bydlinski did conflate Wilburg's “elements” with principles in Franz Bydlinski, Das Bewegliche System im geltenden und künftigen Recht 32 (1986).Google Scholar
158 On this see Joachim Rückert, Gewohnheit Gebot Gesetz 181–220 (Nils Jansen & Peter Oestmann eds., 2011). Rückert references an early concept of evaluation proposed by Stampe in 1905 (Id. at 187–88) that, in the end, did not have much of an impact.Google Scholar
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163 In the discussion following Hueck's speech at the 1951 conference of private law scholars, the majority of participants rejected Nipperdey's position, arguing instead “that constitutional rights have no immediate effect on legal transactions in private law which doesn't mean they shouldn't be considered in an evaluation based on Sections 138, 242, 826 BGB,” as reported in Juristenzeitung 734 (1951).Google Scholar
164 See Günter Dürig, Juristische Rundschau 262 n.50 (1952) for a first direct reference to Hueck.Google Scholar
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173 This was also, in effect, Nörr's position. Knut Wolfgang Nörr, Der Richter zwischen Gesetz und Wirklichkeit: Die Reaktion des Reichsgerichts auf die Krisen von Weltkrieg und Inflation, und die Entfaltung eines neuen richterlichen Selbstverständnisses 30 (1996); Joachim Rückert, 30 Kritische Justiz 429–41 (1997).Google Scholar
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176 RG, Jan 15, 1926, Juristische Wochenschrift 980-81 (1926) with a critical comment by Erich Molitor (articles 153 and 155 Weimarer Reichsverfassung are drawn upon for an interpretation of Sections 242, 138, 226, 826 of the BGB); in RGZ 128, 95–100, Section 138 BGB is said to demand that “human interactions be governed by a respect for those constitutional rights.” See Knut Wolfgang Nörr, Zwischen den Mühlsteinen 10 n.42 (1988).Google Scholar
177 Term introduced by Jörn Ipsen, Die Grundrechte 143 (Franz Leopold Neumann et al. eds., vol. 2, 1954).Google Scholar
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186 Carl Schmitt, 62 Juristische Wochenschrift 2793-94 (1933).Google Scholar
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190 Justus Wilhelm Hedemann, Juristische Rundschau 131 (1950).Google Scholar
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192 Verordnung [V] [Regulation] Nr. 92. Änderung des Gesetzes Nr. 51 der Militärregierung (Währung) vom 1. Juli 1947 Amtsblatt der Militärregierung in Deutschland Nr. 20, at 567.Google Scholar
193 Fritz Koch, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 171 (1947).Google Scholar
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195 Franz Scholz, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 81 (1950). Coing also stressed the continuing importance of Section 242 BGB because judges “are sworn to general principles of justice” even in the face of binding legal norms, Helmut Coing, 3 Süddeutsche Juristen-Zeitung 132 (1948).Google Scholar
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205 Hasso Hofmann rightly emphasizes this in Rechtsphilosophie nach 1945, 21–25 (2012).Google Scholar
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** The principle of good faith constitutes an immanent limitation of the content of every law (“Innentheorie”) …. If one exercises one's right or takes advantage of a legal position in breach of the principle of good faith, that action constitutes an inacceptable abuse of law …. If the relevant circumstances change, the exercise of a right in breach of good faith can become permissible again; by the same logic, a relevant situational change can render a hitherto permissible action abusive and thus illegal. § 242 thus makes legal content relative.Google Scholar
** While this, at first, seems to be a somewhat technical approach—which, of course, grants the judge an almost unlimited power to interfere in subjective rights—Johannes Friesecke explains it in its original political function in the 3d edition, 1940: “This limitation of rights results from the idea that every subjective right also contains a duty.” The nature and content of this limitation “is not primarily defined by the morality of the contractual comrades (Vertragsgenossen) … but by the values and morality of the national community (Volksgemeinschaft).” Palandt/Johannes Friesecke, § 242 at 193 (3d ed. 1940). In the 9th edition (1951), Bernhard Danckelmann adopted this idea of immanent duties in every subjective right and merely purified the language, speaking of “contractual parties” instead of “contractual comrades” and of “general moral principles” instead of Volksgemeinschaft. Palandt/Bernhard Danckelmann, § 242 n.197 (9th ed. 1951). As an explanation for the merely cosmetic amendment, he declared that whilst the terminology of the Reichsgericht in 1939—“communal spirit” and “Volksgemeinschaft”—may have been influenced by National Socialism, “the idea behind it has merit” (id.). In 1969, from the 28th edition onwards, Helmut Heinrichs obliterated every trace of politics from this discussion—this remains true for the present—whilst the doctrine itself remained the same, Palandt/Helmut Heinrichs, § 242 (28th ed. 1969). In contrast, the idea of a “unity of rights and duties”—as an attack on the notion of constitutional rights as liberties against the state—is still openly discussed among constitutional jurists, cf. Otto Depenheuer, in Handbuch Der Grundrechte n.52 (Detlef Merten & Hans-Jürgen Papier eds., vol. 1, 2004).Google Scholar
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